By Major W. Cox
The recent extortion trial and subsequent conviction of 22 year old Autumn Jackson by a New York Federal District Court, unfolded as a classic tragedy. A jury convicted Ms. Jackson of attempting to extort $40,000,000 from Bill Cosby, the famous television comic/actor/pitch-man. During the trial, Ms. Jackson claimed that she was "negotiating" with the man she believed to be her father.
Jackson and co-defendants, Jose Medina, 51, a former tennis instructor, and Boris Sabas, 42, a small business owner, are scheduled for sentencing by Judge Barbara Jones in October. When they are sentenced, Jackson could receive up to 12 years in prison and $750,000 in fines. Under federal sentencing guidelines, Judge Jones can impose a lesser sentence if she determines that there are mitigating or unusual circumstances in the case. There are many.
In a larger sense, this trial focuses attention on children growing up fatherless. Autumn Jackson grew up in a home without her father. However, she never thought of herself as fatherless. She grew up believing that she was the secret love-child of Mr. Cosby, because her mother, Shawn Upshaw, and grandmother told her the famous TV actor was her father. This belief exposes an emotional foundation for her actions that should help to mitigate her sentence.
However, there are additional reasons for mitigating her sentence. Mr. Cosby admitted to an adulterous relationship with Ms. Upshaw, but denies paternity. The court ruled during the trial that Mr. Cosby’s paternity was not relevant to the criminal charge of extortion. Initially, he did not volunteer for the DNA testing that could prove him the woman’s father. After the trial, Cosby submitted to testing, but in an interesting turn of events, both Ms. Jackson and her mother refused.
The fact that Mr. Cosby admitted to a sexual relationship with Ms. Jackson’s mother and maintained a financial relationship with her until Autumn finished college, is troublesome. The $100,000 he testified to giving Ms. Upshaw doesn’t bother me as much as the stereotype the case nourishes; making it appear that Mr. Cosby paid hush-money to protect his high-priced pitch-man image.
Paying money to protect one’s commercial interests under most circumstances can be prudent conduct. Nonetheless, it is wrong when paying money causes harm to an innocent third party. In this case, that third party was a child, Autumn Jackson.
The essence of the criminal case against Autumn Jackson is this. A very successful man has a secret adulterous relationship. The woman in the relationship has a child. The man denies paternity, yet pays a total of $100,000 to the child’s mother over the course of her childhood. The child grows up understanding from her mother that this man is her father. As an adult, the child makes a demented attempt to extort money from the man she believes to be her father.
Granted, Ms. Jackson’s attempt to extort $40,000,000 from Mr. Cosby is a crime, even if he is her father. For this crime, the jury properly convicted her. But, I think that the judge should look beyond these facts and consider the role others played in this tragedy.
It appears that Mr. Cosby left his paternity legally unchallenged, insofar as Autumn Jackson was concerned, until she became an adult. He did so while paying Ms. Jackson’s mother $100,000. The judge, in fairness to Ms. Jackson, should consider if Mr. Cosby’s payments to her mother, influenced her to name Jerald Jackson as father.
Traditionally, a child’s paternity is established at birth upon the mother’s testimony. Autumn’s mother named Jerald Jackson. His name appears on her birth certificate and he does not deny his paternity. However, she told her daughter that Mr. Cosby was her father. Alone, this action on her mother’s part bespeaks of horrendous child abuse and should be taken into consideration by the judge when imposing Ms. Jackson’s sentence.
There are no easy answers here, this case is not over. If the money Mr. Cosby gave Shawn Upshaw was payment to her for naming someone else as Autumn’s father, he may have committed a crime. It makes no difference whether tests prove him the father or not. Certainly, Ms. Upshaw convoluting her daughter’s feelings about her father, whoever he may be, should be a crime.
This tragedy is a public example of a pitiful story that is being played out in the lives of countless children. Children, like Autumn Jackson, who reach adulthood and can only define their life opportunities by their victimization.
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Originally Published: 6 August 1997, Montgomery, Advertiser
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