Travolta extortion case keeps getting more bizarre

The Travolta family extortion case keeps getting stranger by the day. A Bahamian lawmaker was charged Friday with plotting to extort about $20 million from John Travolta after the tragic death of his son, authorities said.

Sen. Pleasant Bridgewater was accused of abetment and conspiracy to extort. She was released yesterday on $40,000 bail.

A paramedic Tarino Lightbourne, and a close friend of the actor Obie Wilchcombe, a member of Parliament and the former Minister of Tourism in the Bahamas, also were in custody and being grilled about the case. A police official tells TMZ, Wilchcombe was initially brought to the police station under the pretext of helping authorities crack the case, but is now “implicated” in the alleged extortion plot — that’s why he’s currently in custody.

Wilchcombe, a family friend, emerged as an unofficial spokesman for the Travoltas following Jett Travolta’s death Jan. 2 at the actor’s vacation home on Grand Bahama.

Lightbourne was one of the paramedics who tried to revive Jett and is said to have taken a picture of the 16-year-old with his cell phone. He was busted after cops issued an alert for him, warning he was “considered dangerous and should be approached with caution.”

Allegedly the Travolta’s claimed two blackmailers threatened to publish a photo of their son taken as he lay dying unless they were paid “millions of dollars.” There is some dispute though whether the extortion was about the photo or some other event involving John Travolta and his late son Jett.