2 Questioned as Possible Cosby Witnesses

Los Angeles police detectives on Monday questioned two “possible witnesses” in connection with last week’s slaying of Ennis William Cosby, while authorities in New York announced the arrests of two suspects in what was described as an unrelated extortion attempt on the young man’s father, entertainment icon Bill Cosby.

The two potential witnesses were seen Monday afternoon in Torrance outside a Chinese fast-food restaurant, where one had entered to borrow a spoon. They were initially questioned at the scene by Torrance police and eventually brought to Parker Center in downtown Los Angeles for further questioning by the LAPD that extended into the night.

One of the men had been driving a light blue hatchback with white license plates that could have come from another state, said T.K. Hsu, the owner of the restaurant. Hsu described the man as white, between 25 and 30, with dark hair and a goatee. The second man was also seen in the area, and may have been with the driver of the hatchback, said Hsu, who described him as white with long, sandy brown hair pulled back in a ponytail.

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A woman at the shopping center said the two men had been loitering in the area a day earlier and had been asked to leave by merchants.

On Saturday, police announced that they were looking for a blue hatchback, possibly with out-of-state license plates, that had been seen near the murder scene; the driver of that car was described as a white male in his late 20s to mid-30s with dark hair, a mustache and a goatee. According to police, that man was being sought for questioning as a possible witness to the killing of Ennis Cosby, who was shot on a dark roadside near Bel-Air about 1:45 a.m. on Thursday.

Torrance police questioned the goateed man at length in the strip mall parking lot at Pacific Coast Highway and Anza Avenue--a session that Hsu said did not appear to be heated. Hsu said the second man also was in the area, and the LAPD later confirmed that it was questioning two possible witnesses in the Cosby case. The blue hatchback was briefly searched in the parking lot and then towed away by authorities.

Meanwhile, the U.S. attorney’s office in New York announced Monday that Autumn Jackson, 22, and Jose Medina, 54, both from Southern California, 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.

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

According to the complaint, Jackson had received money for educational expenses from Cosby “as he has paid for numerous young people in need of tuition assistance.”

Last November or December, the court papers said, Cosby’s lawyer received a telephone call from Jackson stating that she was out of money, and the lawyer sent her about $3,000.

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Earlier this month, the court documents continued, the woman made calls asking for additional money and saying that if she didn’t receive it, she would get it by “going to the news media.” Cosby’s lawyer told her what she was doing “was extortion and was illegal” and that extortion was a crime in every state.

The day after Cosby’s son was killed, court papers say, the entertainer’s lawyer had three phone conversations with Jackson that were monitored and tape-recorded by the FBI.

A meeting was arranged in the lawyer’s office, and after receiving checks and signing a fictitious agreement from Cosby’s lawyer, the suspects were arrested.

“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.”

Authorities in New York and Los Angeles were quick to stress that there does not appear to be any connection between the alleged extortion attempt and the murder last week of Cosby’s son. Driven in part by the release of composite pictures and in part by an escalating tabloid reward derby, detectives were being forced Monday into a sort of investigative triage, attempting to separate factual from fanciful accounts of Ennis Cosby’s slaying. By midday, police were sifting through more than 300 tips.

Even more tips are likely to come in courtesy of the tabloid media. Two newspapers responded to Bill Cosby’s challenge to stop paying sources and instead use that money to post a reward. The National Enquirer was first to respond, announcing Sunday it would post $100,000 for information leading to apprehension of the killer.

Then, 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.

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

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.”

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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 a 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 suspect in the Cosby case 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.

While the LAPD sifts through clues from citizens, sources said investigators are also focused on several potentially valuable pieces of physical evidence.

The tire of Cosby’s car is being examined to determine whether it may have been sabotaged, but McBride said analysis of the tire still is not complete. Although he said the tire does not appear to have been shot, police have not ruled out that possibility. Other sources said police also have not come to any conclusion about whether cuts in the tire suggest that it was slashed or merely damaged after deflating.

How the tire was flattened is important because it could offer a clue as to whether Cosby was set upon by an opportunistic robber who saw him stranded by the road or set up by someone who might have known him or at least seen him earlier in the evening.

In addition, Cosby’s cellular phone records are being retrieved to see whether, in the hour before the shooting, he called the woman who thus far is the LAPD’s principal witness. That woman, according to sources, told police that she came to the scene after Cosby called to say he had a flat tire. She told authorities that as she waited nearby in her car, a man approached her and frightened her, either by tapping on her window or displaying a gun.

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According to sources, she said she fled, then returned a few minutes later to find Cosby’s body. If Cosby’s cellular phone records confirm that he called her shortly before the murders, they would bolster a key element of her account, enhancing her credibility as a witness.

Although the Cosby family has remained in seclusion in the days since Ennis Cosby’s murder, Bill Cosby’s spokesman said the entertainer planned to return to work on Monday.

For the last five days, the senior Cosby and his family have been at the center of an international outpouring of sympathy and condolence.

“There have been substantial gifts and some far more modest ones that are also substantial from the standpoint of the thought,” said Brokaw, Cosby’s spokesman. “This was the nation’s role model for a father and the nation’s role model for a son.”

The tragedy and the reflection it has prompted did not force cancellation of Cosby’s weekly television show, which aired as scheduled Monday night. The program began with a short note from CBS.

“The CBS family joins America in mourning the loss of Ennis William Cosby,” the text read. “At the request of Bill Cosby, we broadcast ‘Cosby’ this evening, as originally planned.”

The show ended with two “In Memoriam” placards. One commemorated Sheldon Leonard, a television producer and father figure to Cosby; the other was dedicated to Cosby’s only son.

Under the picture of Leonard, who died Jan. 10 at the age of 89, ran the words: “My last father.”

And beneath Ennis Cosby’s photograph read the tribute: “My son, my hero.”

Times staff writers John Goldman and Miles Corwin contributed to this story.