Detectives in Los Angeles struggled last week to make sense of the murder case. They had few leads: the pool of potential witnesses kept shrinking, and there was little evidence at the scene. Police sources say they are backing off from the theory that a random robbery escalated into murder. They reportedly found nothing missing from the car, nor did they pick up fingerprints matching any in the FBI database. Cosby doesn’t seem to have struggled with his assailant. In fact, he was found clutching a package of cigarettes in his right hand, though friends told NEWSWEEK they didn’t believe he smoked. Police now conclude that Cosby was shot from several feet away, since they didn’t find powder burns on his skin. A sketch of a goateed man turned up the potential witness, but he says he saw nothing. ““Everything is back on the board,’’ says one police source. ““We need to take a second look at everything.''
Meanwhile, investigators continue to say that a woman charged with attempting to blackmail Bill Cosby by claiming she was his illegitimate daughter had nothing to do with the murder–despite the timing of her case. Two days after Ennis Cosby’s death, FBI agents in New York arrested Autumn Jackson on charges that she tried to extort $40 million from Bill Cosby. Cosby says he has a copy of Jackson’s birth certificate, which refutes her claim. He admits he financed Jackson’s education–including a $3,000 check sent in November or December–though he has helped countless needy students. But when Cosby wouldn’t send money again this month, Jackson–along with Jose Medina, 51, who Jackson said bought the rights to her story–allegedly wanted millions to keep quiet.
She’s still threatening to tell her story. ““If the important issue of fatherhood is raised, we will be prepared to address that at trial,’’ Jackson’s lawyer, Robert Baum, told NEWSWEEK. Those claims may not be helped by Jackson’s codefendant. ““My client was told by Autumn Jackson’s mother that Bill Cosby is Autumn Jackson’s father,’’ says Neil Checkman, Medina’s lawyer, ““and he didn’t particularly believe what he was told.’’ Her mother, Shawn Thompson, has kept her silence; in her one public appearance she quickly fled a horde of photographers.
Long obsessed with safety, the rich and famous have been shaken by Ennis Cosby’s death. Anthony Pellicano, a Hollywood private investigator who was a consultant on the movie ““Ransom,’’ has received a flurry of calls. ““What more should I do now?’’ his clients ask. Celebrities began spinning tighter security cocoons in the 1980s, after the murders of John Lennon and actress Rebecca Schaeffer and the brutal slashing of actress Theresa Saldana. With the endless databases of the cyberworld, the goal now is to create the unlisted life. Few celebrities buy houses in their own name; most don’t even get mail delivered at home. Not surprisingly, kids get the most fanatical scrutiny. Many private schools have elaborate systems to identify those authorized to pick up a student after classes. These kids never carpool. If one wealthy child is a target, two or three together multiplies the risk. Yet celebrities don’t always do what’s safe. ““Katie Couric talks about her child on the air all the time. This is not something I would advise,’’ says Park Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist and security consultant. For that matter, Arnold Schwarzenegger shouldn’t cruise L.A. in his Humvee. And if the Ter- minator isn’t safe, who is?
title: “Holes In The Safety Net” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-24” author: “Roger Staton”
Passed by Congress in 1996, Megan’s Law–named after a 7-year-old New Jersey girl who was raped and murdered by a repeat child molester in 1994–requires states to keep records of the whereabouts of freed rapists and child molesters, and to make those lists available to the public. But a new survey reveals that state and local authorities are doing a horrible job keeping track. As many as one quarter–100,000–of the nation’s paroled sex offenders are currently unaccounted for, according to a report released by the advocacy group Parents for Megan’s Law earlier this month. California and Massachusetts can’t account for 44 percent of their offenders, while Oklahoma and Tennessee have lost track of 35 to 50 percent of theirs. Eighteen states and the District of Columbia couldn’t even tell the group how many offenders were missing.
The reasons for the disappearances vary. Like Santana, some men registered, but then moved; others haven’t registered in years, or never bothered in the first place (penalties for failing to register vary from state to state). Since sex offenders are the highest recidivists among violent criminals, the result is a public-safety device that looks solid, but isn’t. “How can communities feel safe if we don’t really keep track?” asks Laura Ahearn, director of Parents for Megan’s Law.
The big problem is that the law isn’t airtight. While states are required to register sex offenders at least once a year or risk losing federal crime fighting funds, the burden to report in lies with the offenders themselves in most states. “We have an honor system for dishonorable people,” says California state Sen. Dean Florez, one of several officials around the country who’d like to tighten the law.
Spending extra to aggressively police the problem seems to help. Connecticut officials say they can successfully track 97.6 percent of their offenders because a special unit of state troopers teams with local cops to find those who fail to register every 90 days.
Despite its flaws, Megan’s Law still helps far more than it hurts, cops say. In fact, it ultimately helped put Vincent Santana back behind bars. After his acquittal on the sexual-assault charges, a second jury convicted him of failing to properly register, a crime that made him a “habitual offender,” Nevada’s version of the three-strike law. His lawyer is appealing the sentence: life without the possibility of parole.
