THROW THE BASTARD IN JAIL!
The Cos’ Other Daughter Gets The Shaft
by Ted Rall
"The identity of Ms. Jackson’s father is not relevant to
Ms. Jackson’s guilt or innocence of the crimes with
which she has been charged."
-Andrew Schau, Attorney for Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby has always been a ground-breaker.
His starring role with Robert Culp in the Sixties comedy "I Spy" was a first for a black television actor.
After having spent the Seventies as a pitchman for Jello Pudding Pops (this kind of thing is typically a precursor
to profession oblivion - ask Gloria Steinem) he came back with a new "Cosby Show" that dominated Eighties
TV ratings. Now he’s turning his astute and highly-adaptable brain to the legal profession.
Not only has he escaped paying a portion of his millions to the illegitimate daughter he apparently
abandoned in 1974 - he’s turned the tables, put the kid on trial for extortion and painted himself as a victim!
And I used to like this guy.
The public has witnessed with little comment the pathetic spectacle of 22-year-old Autumn Jackson and her two
older accomplices’ New York trial in what the FBI says was a clumsy scheme to extort $24 million (the Cos’ legal
eagle chatted them down from $40 million) from America’s best-loved TV dad.
Cosby now admits he had an affair with Jackson’s mother, Shawn Upshaw, back during the last fitful months of
the Nixon Administration. Who can blame the guy? We were all edgy back then.
In any event, Upshaw, who was then half Cosby’s age, became pregnant, a common side-effect of having lots of sex.
According to Autumn Jackson’s defense lawyer, the then-married Cosby set up a meeting with Upshaw during the fall
of ‘74. In exchange for keeping mum about her celebrity lover, Cosby told the young mom, she and her child would
"never have to worry about anything." (An old boyfriend was listed as the official birth-certificate father.)
Although Cosby hasn’t acknowledged his paternity, no one disputes that he created a $750-a-week trust fund for
Upshaw and eventually shelled out $25,000 in college tuition for her daughter Jackson. The tuition money stopped
coming in after the troubled young woman dropped out of school, but he nonetheless sent her an additional $3,000
in 1996 after she complained that she was living in poverty and working as a motel clerk in Burbank, California.
The author of the best-selling book Fatherhood says that he doesn’t think he is Jackson’s dad, but doesn’t rule
out the possibility. Regardless, he has refused a defense request for a blood test to establish paternity,
claiming that the issue is irrelevant. Cosby may have dropped out of high school himself, but he’s obviously
read Orwell. When it comes to the unpleasant issue of unofficial parenthood, ignorance is strength.
Clearly Jackson thinks that she is Cosby’s daughter; she has already passed two lie-detector tests
in which she affirmatively answered the question "Is Bill Cosby your father?" Admittedly, what she did about
it was a tad gauche: Tired of being ignored by her father and his attorneys, she and 51-year-old aspiring
screenwriter/convicted con-man Jose Medina offered to sell her juicy tale (COSBY KID LIVES IN CAR!) to
The Globe for $50,000, then faxed the tabloid’s offer contract to Cosby’s lawyer in order to get the actor’s
attention. Prosecutors and press accounts of the trial emphasize the tacky timing of the negotiations; the big fax
arrived within hours of Cosby’s son Ennis’ January 16 roadside murder in Los Angeles.
Note the disparity: Ennis, a 27-year-old Ph.D. student at Columbia University, was changing a flat on his $115,000
Mercedes when he was shot. Jackson, who happened to be born to the wrong mom, received a total of $28,000 over
the course of her 22 years before she quit attending classes at her community college in Tallahassee, Florida.
Most prominent men, stricken with grief and faced with seeing their hypocrisy publicly exposed, would have crumbled
like a house of popsicle sticks. Not Cosby. Instead, he asked his pals at the FBI to set up a sting
operation - call it DADSCAM - to nail his female problem. Cosby’s minions told Jackson and Medina to fly to New
York, where they supposed to sign a $24 million deal in exchange for her silence. The pair was arrested at New
York’s JFK Airport for conspiracy, extortion and engaging in interstate commerce to commit crimes. A month later
the feds nabbed Boris Sabas, 42, for driving Jackson and Medina to LAX.
After Ennis’ death, U.S. attorney Paul Engelmayer told the jury, "Her response was to exploit the situation; her
response was to play hardball," said U.S. Attorney Paul Engelmayer. Like father, like daughter?
The Cosby Team’s argument that paternity doesn’t matter makes about as much sense as the plot of Leonard Part 6.
The only way he can avoid becoming the nation’s premier poster parent for cruelty to children is to take that DNA test.
If Cosby’s genes don’t match up with Autumn Jackson’s, fine. Let the trial continue. A conviction will end
Jackson’s "virtual homelessness" for a while. But if, as most Americans suspect, he is Jackson’s dad,
it’s time to cough up the money he agreed to pay her and her loser friend back in January. Family law has
already established that parents are financially responsible for their biological children, regardless of how
convenient their births were. It’s not like Cosby can’t afford to pay - the man has more money than God. He’s
already doled out $20 million to Spelman College, an institution he never even attended. The least he can do
is pay $24 million to the daughter he abandoned, neglected, ignored and jailed.
If found guilty of all charges, the three defendants face 12 years in prison and fines of up to $750,000.
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All Material Copyright 1997 Ted Rall. Web Design: Bård Edlund.
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