Cosby Extortion Trial Starts With 2 Images of Defendant

NEW YORK —  A federal prosecutor charged during opening arguments Wednesday that Autumn Jackson--a 22-year-old woman who claims to be Bill Cosby’s born-out-of-wedlock daughter--and two other defendants tried to extort $40 million from the actor because they were “driven by greed” and “wanted to get rich quick.”

“The defendants threat to Bill Cosby was simple: ‘Your money or your reputation,’ ” Assistant U.S. Atty. Paul A. Engelmayer told jurors in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

“This is a case about a plot to extort money from Bill Cosby,” the prosecutor said.

But Jackson’s chief lawyer, Robert M. Baum, painted a different picture--of a woman who periodically received money from the actor in return for living with a secret.

“For 22 years, Autumn Jackson has kept a secret. She was told the secret as a very young child,” Baum asserted.

“The secret came with a warning. You must never tell the secret to anyone. Autumn Jackson was told Bill Cosby is her father.”

The defense lawyer said the comedian did everything possible to be sure neither Jackson nor her mother disclosed the secret.

“He paid them off,” Baum told the jury.

The lawyer said Jackson never engaged in extortion, merely negotiations with representatives of a parent who deliberately kept her in the background.

“Autumn Jackson felt she possessed certain legal and moral rights,” Baum said.

“You will ask yourself: Who is the real victim?” he told the jury of six men and six women.

The debate stands at the core of the high-profile criminal case. Cosby is expected to be called as a prosecution witness.

Engelmayer charged that Jackson, Jose Medina, 51, of Bethesda, Ohio, and Boris Sabas, 42, of Los Angeles, formulated the extortion plot in a Burbank motel room when the children’s television series they were trying to produce failed to get financial backing.

The prosecutor said that in the early 1970s, Cosby had a brief extramarital affair with Jackson’s mother, Shawn Thompson, and later set up trust funds for her and the child.

“This is not a paternity suit. This is a trial about extortion,” the government lawyer said.

Cosby has acknowledged having a brief affair with Thompson, but he denies being Jackson’s father.

Another name appears on her birth certificate. Baum told the jury that at Cosby’s suggestion, the name of Thompson’s former boyfriend was placed on the document.

Government lawyers charge the extortion scheme began in November or December, when Jackson called Cosby’s lawyers and said she was out of money. The lawyer sent her $3,000.

According to court papers, the scheme escalated with Jackson contacting CBS and with Medina drafting letters to two of the actor’s sponsors. Both defendants were arrested in the offices of one of Cosby’s lawyers after accepting checks totaling $24 million.

“The letters said Autumn Jackson was penniless. She was left out in the cold. She was homeless,” Engelmayer told the court. “To the outside world, the letters said he [Cosby] was a CBS mega-star. But to Autumn Jackson, Bill Cosby was just another deadbeat dad.”

The prosecutor said one letter claimed Cosby was such a scrooge that Jackson spent one Christmas Eve sleeping in a box in a public park, when in reality, she was in a motel.

“She put a price on Bill Cosby’s reputation. It would cost him $40 million,” Engelmayer added.

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The prosecutor said that on Jan. 16, when Cosby’s son, Ennis, was murdered in Los Angeles, Jackson’s response was to “exploit the situation.”

“Her response was to play hardball--surrender the $40 million.”

Prosecutors say there appears to be no connection between the alleged extortion and the killing.

Baum said that Jackson believed she had certain financial rights as Cosby’s daughter and never intended extortion.

“Autumn Jackson realized she would never be publicly accepted by Bill Cosby as his daughter,” the defense lawyer said. “Autumn Jackson had no intention of engaging in any illegal and unlawful activity and made no threat against his reputation.”

Baum said that Cosby had a long financial relationship with Jackson and her mother, including paying for automobiles and an $11,000 bill at the Betty Ford Clinic when Thompson had a drug problem.

He said that Cosby invited Jackson, who was 17 at the time, and her grandmother to New York to attend a taping of his show at NBC, paying expenses, including the grandmother’s lost wages. Baum said they sat in reserved front row seats in the studio, and after the program was over, a videotape was made backstage to celebrate the occasion.

The lawyer told the jurors that after Jackson had an argument about her boyfriend with her mother, she moved out and for a time lived in her car. Baum said Cosby sent Jackson $3,000 to tide her over, and when that money ran out, “she felt alone, destitute, frightened.”