Polanski Case May Be Coming To An End

Roman Polanski is under house arrest in Switzerland (poor guy), and filed to have his 32 year old case dismissed. The judges ruled yesterday that the case could not be dismissed, BUT he could file for have his sentence to be in absentia. Basically, he wouldn’t have to return to the US and the judge assigned the case would have to open an investigation into the allegations Polanski has mentioned. Though, Polanski pleaded guilty, he has made allegations that there was prosecutorial and judicial misconduct in the original handling of the case.

Britney Spears: Ex-BoyFriend Jailed

A celebrity photographer who briefly dated Britney Spears at the height of her career meltdown was sentenced to 45 days in jail on Friday after clashing with an official trying to serve him a restraining order.

Adnan Ghalib, 37, one of the paparazzi who trailed Spears night and day in 2007, was also ordered to complete an anger management program.

Los Angeles prosecutors alleged that in February Ghalib drove his car toward an official who was trying to serve a court order keeping him away from Spears and her family.

Ghalib pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, and charges of assault were dropped.

Spears, now 27, began a relationship with Ghalib in December 2007 when her private and public life were falling apart following her divorce, stints in rehab and a notorious head shaving incident.

Her behavior improved after the singer’s father intervened and was given control of her business and personal affairs by the Los Angeles courts in January 2008.

ABC NEWS

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Polanski victim seeks dismissal

The victim of the sexual assault committed by Roman Polanski has called for charges against the film director to be dismissed, court documents show.

Lawyers for Samantha Geimer, who was 13 when Polanski had sex with her in 1977, urged a dismissal in a motion filed at a California appeals court on Friday.

She had suffered health problems after being hounded by the media following Polanski’s arrest last month, it said.

The director is currently being held in Switzerland on a US arrest warrant.

On Friday, the US embassy in Bern submitted a formal extradition request, on which the Swiss authorities must rule within 40 days.

Read more at BBC

Mistrial: Travolta Extortion Case

After nearly four weeks in a courtroom, a Bahamian judge declared a surprise mistrial late Wednesday in the John Travolta extortion trial, leaving the actor and his attorneys mystified and upset.

Senior Supreme Court Judge Anita Allen declared a mistrial because of juror misconduct following an announcement from a local politician that one of the defendants had been acquitted – before the jurors came back with their verdict. Allen ordered a retrial, but did it remains unclear when, if ever, the case will be retried.

“This came out of the clear blue; this was so weird,” Mike Ossi, one of Travolta’s Florida lawyers told PEOPLE.

Read the full article at PEOPLE

Anna Nicole’s Final Days

Anna Nicole Smith was ill, confused and isolated in a hotel room with a cornucopia of prescription drugs in the days before her death, an investigator testified Tuesday in a criminal case stemming from the celebrity model’s overdose death.

California Department of Justice investigator Danny Santiago testified that witnesses said Smith was unable to walk unassisted into the Florida hotel, and she was so weak she could not sit up to drink liquids.

The testimony was presented in a preliminary hearing involving charges that Smith’s former lawyer-boyfriend Howard K. Stern and two California doctors conspired to illegally provide Smith with controlled substances before her drug-overdose death at age 39.

Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry, who will decide if there is enough evidence to send the case to trial, noted the defendants have not been accused of killing Smith and questioned the relevance when prosecutor Renee Rose asked Santiago about Smith’s cause of death.

“There is not a murder charge,” Perry said. “The cause of death is not an issue.”

Read More at GOOGLE

John Travolta Back in Court

John Travolta returned to the witness stand today and testified that the Bahamian medic accused of trying to blackmail him was allegedly threatening to say that Travolta was at fault in his son Jett’s death.

The actor was called back to the stand to confirm that on Jan. 16, two weeks after Jett died, he had been notified by his bodyguard and his attorney that someone was demanding $25 million and, if it wasn’t paid, a document Travolta signed to refuse transporting Jett to a local hospital would be “sold to the press.”

Showing no emotion, Travolta told the court in Nassau that paramedic Tarino Lightbourne allegedly threatened that the leaked document would result in “stories that would imply that the death of my son was intentional … that I was culpable in some way.”

On cross-examination, Travolta admitted that he was never called or threatened personally by either of the defendants — Lightbourne or Bahamian lawmaker Pleasant Bridgewater, who is also charged with blackmailing Travolta.

The case against the pair has always alleged that the threats were made through Travolta’s bodyguards and attorney.

Travolta was released by the judge and is not expected to reappear in court. He left with wife Kelly Preston, holding hands and surrounded by security.

ABC NEWS

Alleged Travolta Extortionists Haggled on Video

Secret police videos have captured the alleged extortionists in the John Travolta case in deep conflict … with one defendant accusing the other of trying to settle way too cheap — this according to law enforcement sources.

As we first reported yesterday, authorities have at least two videos of paramedic Tarino Lightbourne and attorney Pleasant Bridgewater demanding millions of dollars from John Travolta’s lawyers, in return for not making a document public.

Our sources say Bridgewater is caught on tape demanding many millions of dollars, but another video shows Lightbourne outraged that Bridgewater demanded what he considered such a paltry sum. His demand was exponentially higher than hers, law enforcement sources tell TMZ.

We’re told the videos show them haggling over money — and although it’s been reported the pair allegedly demanded $25 million, we’re told they finally agreed to $15 mil.

We’re also told lawyers for Bridgewater and Lightbourne will make a motion today to suppress the videos, on grounds they were illegally recorded.

And there’s a sticky problem — we’re told one of the key Bahamian cops in the video sting was seriously injured “under suspicious circumstances” and is unable to testify.

Travolta has not finished testifying. We’re told he has left the Bahamas and will return next week to complete his testimony.

TMZ

John Travolta to Testify

Actor John Travolta is expected to testify in court against the people who tried to extort over 25 million dollars from him after his son was discovered unconscious on the floor of their summer retreat.

An ambulance driver and a former Bahamas senator allegedly targeted Travolta after his chronically ill son died in the Bahamas. They are accused of demanding money in exchange for not publicizing a document related to 16-year-old Jett Travolta’s treatment.

AP

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