2 Questioned as Possible Cosby Witnesses

Authorities in New York have arrested two suspected extortionists in what was described as a failed attempt to blackmail Bill Cosby, while police in Los Angeles were were questioning two “possible witnesses” in connection with the slaying last week of the entertainment icon’s only son. Officials stressed Monday that they do not believe the two investigations are connected.

The U.S. attorney’s office in New York announced Monday that Autumn Jackson and Jose Medina, both of whom are from Southern California, sources said, had been arrested Saturday. Authorities said the two were threatening to take a story to the tabloid news media accusing Bill Cosby of fathering an illegitimate child--an allegation denied by Cosby’s spokesman. Officials on both coasts conferred Monday about that case and last Thursday’s shooting near Bel-Air of graduate student Ennis William Cosby and concluded that they are not part of a single plot against the Cosby family.

Federal prosecutors said the extortion suspects had sought $40 million from the entertainer and were meeting with Cosby’s attorneys in New York and were expecting to collect a $24-million settlement. Jackson, authorities said, had alleged that she was Cosby’s illegitimate daughter.

“This kind of activity is not something that is unique to Bill Cosby,” said Cosby spokesman David Brokaw. “It happens all the time to entertainment figures. It’s distressing and annoying and disruptive but he’s learned over the years how to protect his family and himself from this kind of invasion.”

In Los Angeles, detectives Monday questioned two men described as potential witnesses in the Cosby slaying. According to a source familiar with the case, the two men were seen driving a car similar to one described by a security guard as having been near the scene of the crime. Police had announced Saturday they wanted to speak to the driver of that car, a blue hatchback, in the hopes that he might have seen events surrounding the killing of Ennis Cosby.

Driven in part by the release of composite photographs and in part by an escalating tabloid reward derby, Los Angeles police detectives are being forced into a sort of investigative triage, attempting to separate factual from fanciful accounts of Ennis Cosby’s slaying as he changed a tire near the San Diego Freeway. By midday Monday, police were sifting through more than 300 tips, some possibly serious clues, others passing observations or dubious suggestions.

On Sunday, Bill Cosby, speaking through his publicist, challenged print and electronic tabloids to stop paying for information about the case and to instead use that money to offer a reward. The National Enquirer was quick to respond, posting $100,000 for information leading to apprehension of the killer.

On Monday, Globe Communications, parent company of the Globe tabloid, upped the ante, offering a $200,000 reward. The Globe also intends to set up a toll-free number to accept tips about the case.

“In circumstances like this, it is often the case that individuals with information prefer to deal with someone other than the police,” the Globe said in a press release announcing its reward. “We will handle all tips with the utmost confidentiality.”

The offers of rewards can both assist and complicate the job of investigators. On one hand, experts say, the prospect of a reward may draw out some otherwise wary tipsters. But if the tips come from self-described eyewitnesses to the killing who withheld their accounts until there is money being offered, they could come back to haunt prosecutors.

Witnesses who cooperate with tabloids in return for money often find themselves subjected to withering criticism if they are called into court. In the O.J. Simpson case, for instance, one witness who told the grand jury that she saw a frantic Simpson moments after the murders was dropped and given a tongue lashing by prosecutor Marcia Clark after she admitted that she had accepted money from a tabloid for her story. Although that money was offered as payment for a story and not as a reward, the witness’ acceptance of the cash cast such a cloud over her credibility that she was never called to testify during the criminal trial.

In the Cosby investigation, legal experts said the primary value of the rewards may be to draw out not eyewitnesses to the crime, but rather people who can identify the suspect from the composite drawing or otherwise aid police with secondhand information.

“The risk to credibility is a real risk,” said UCLA law professor Peter Arenella. “But it’s arguably well worth it if some individuals with secondhand information may help the police with their investigation.”

Tony Frost, editor of the Globe, said he was confident that the tabloid’s reward would not compromise the investigation.

“It’s not a fear because the information would be passed to the LAPD and their wealth of experience would be able to tell whether it witness was genuine or not,” Frost said. He added that the Globe would screen the tips first, and possibly use them for stories, but then would pass along information to the LAPD.

At the LAPD, Cmdr. Tim McBride emphasized that police would prefer to have witnesses come directly to authorities. “We are encouraging people to come to the police,” McBride said. “We’re not in partnership with the tabloids.”

The most helpful tips, police and outside observers agree, are those that might lead to the identification of two men: one who is being called the primary suspect in the case and another who is being labeled a possible witness.

Most of the tips thus far have gone straight to the department’s Robbery-Homicide Division, the same elite unit that handled the O.J. Simpson investigation and other high-profile killings. LAPD press officers also have been receiving tips, said Cmdr. McBride, as have officers in other parts of the department, including the West Los Angeles Division, which covers the area where Ennis Cosby’s body was found last week.

The result is a massive exercise in what LAPD officials call “clue management,” the sifting of leads into credible tips and the rantings of wannabes who sometimes emerge to clamor for a place in a high-profile investigation.

“We appreciate the public’s help,” said McBride. “Some of the clues are clearly more critical than others. We try to focus our attention on the ones that may lead to a suspect.”

Robert W. Peterson, a private investigator who worked on the Simpson case, said that in the days ahead, police can expect to be on the receiving end of a cascade of information, much of it bad.

“Everybody in the world is going to turn in somebody they don’t like, a noisy neighbor or an ex-girlfriend or an ex-wife,” he said. “Going through all that is like an insurmountable task.”

Bill Pavelic, a former LAPD detective who now works as an investigator and consultant, said 99% of the calls to the Police Department are likely to be worthless--some from psychics, others from people playing amateur detective. But Pavelic said experienced detectives can quickly separate the wheat from the chaff.

The LAPD’s ability to run down scores of leads has been tested before, most notably during the investigation of the June 12, 1994, slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman. In that case, thousands of callers offered tips--some true, most false--as to the killer or other details of that case.

In the investigation, the issue was complicated by Simpson’s offer of a reward for information leading to the apprehension of the “real killer or killers.” The Simpson defense team set up a toll-free number, took thousands of tips, then turned over some of them to the LAPD, forcing police investigators to chase them down.

In the Cosby case, the suspect is being described as a white man of average height and weight between the ages of 25 and 32. Police released a composite sketch of him Saturday; in the picture, he is wearing a knit cap.

The other man--whom police said was in his late 20s to mid-30s with dark hair, a mustache and a goatee--is being sought as a possible witness.

Times staff writer James Rainey contributed to this story.