EXCLUSIVE: Ex-NBC employee Frank Scotti claims Bill Cosby paid off women, invited young models to dressing room as he stood guard Veteran NBC employee Frank Scotti says he helped Bill Cosby deliver thousands of dollars to eight different women in 1989-90 - including Shawn Thompson, whose daughter Autumn Jackson claimed the actor was her dad. The ex-aide also tells the Daily News he stood guard whenever Cosby invited young models to his dressing room, which eventually led him to quitting after years on the job.
Back when Bill Cosby was the king of network television, veteran NBC employee Frank Scotti served as the royal fixer.
When Cosby invited young models into his Brooklyn dressing room, the megastar’s pal stood watch outside the door. When the married Cosby sought a Queens apartment for another pretty face, Scotti arranged the deal.
And when the man behind Fat Albert needed cash disbursed to his flock of single female friends — hey, hey, hey — Scotti became the conduit for payments of up to $2,000 a month.
“He had everybody fooled,” said Scotti in an exclusive interview with the Daily News. “Nobody suspected.”
Scotti came forward last week with his insider’s look at Cosby’s womanizing ways during the magical 1984-92 run of “The Cosby Show.”
The 90-year-old Scotti said he decided to speak as the drumbeat of
sexual abuse allegations against Cosby, 77, grew steadily louder. “I felt sorry for the women,” he told The News.
The Emmy-winning Cosby, NBC’s most bankable star at the time, used Scotti to deliver monthly payouts to eight different women in 1989-90 — including Shawn Thompson, whose
daughter Autumn Jackson claimed the actor was her dad.
Cosby, while denying paternity, paid out more than $100,000 to Thompson over the years after their 1974 affair began. Scotti told The News that he believes Cosby was sleeping with all the women who received money.
“I was suspicious that something was going on,” said Scotti. “I suspected that he was having sex with them because the other person he was sending money to (Thompson) he was definitely having sex with.
“Why else would he be sending money?” Scotti asked. “
He was sending these women $2,000 a month. What else could I think?”
Scotti, who lives in Lakewood, N.J., saved copies of money orders from the era detailing his payouts to four of the Cosby women.
He recalled Cosby presenting him with “a satchel of money, all $100 bills,” and pressing Scotti to distribute the payments using money orders in his own name.
“I did a lot of crazy things for him,” recalled Scotti. “He was covering himself by having my name on it. It was a coverup. I realized it later.”
Scotti worked as facilities manager at the Brooklyn studio where “The Cosby Show” was originally taped before a live audience.
Thompson, contacted last week by email, refused to comment on the
ongoing Cosby sex scandal and stopped writing once Scotti’s name was mentioned.
A second woman said “Dr. Cosby” sent her money to help cover expenses for her son to attend private school. The receipts showed her receiving four money orders in one day worth $3,500.
“Your source could have asked me, instead of leading you on a witch hunt,” the woman texted The News. “Not that any of this is your business.”
Cosby, via Scotti, passed along an additional $1,560 to a third woman in February 1990.
Angela Leslie, now 52, was the last name on the receipts — and she told The News the Cosby camp paid for her to fly to California in the early 1990s. She got sick and returned her ticket but saw him two years later in Las Vegas.
Once there, Leslie claimed Cosby got naked before getting sexual — despite her lack of interest. When she backed off, Cosby chased her out of the room.
“I felt so used,” she told The News.
Scotti said Cosby also had an arrangement with a Manhattan modeling agency in which the owner would deliver young women to his dressing room. Some of the aspiring models were as young as 16, Scotti said.
“‘I want you to keep that one girl here,’ ” Scotti quoted Cosby as telling him. “ ‘I want to interview her for a part in the show.’”
The other models and the agency’s owner would quickly disappear, leaving Cosby’s pick alone with the comedian.
“The owner just walked right out,” he recounted. “She knew exactly what was going to go on. Then he’d tell me, ‘Stand outside the door and don’t let anyone in.’ Now you put that together and figure (out) why.”
On another occasion, Cosby asked him to find a Queens apartment for another model from the same agency.
“He said, ‘Call Donald Trump’s brother and see if he can give you an apartment,’ ” Scotti recalled. “So I called him up, and of course, who’s not going to? He’d throw somebody out just to give Bill Cosby an apartment.”
Scotti said the sordid arrangements gnawed at him, and eventually led him to walk away from Cosby.
“It bothered me. . . . You’ve got all of these kids, every time,” he told The News. “I used to like him, but that’s the reason I quit him after so many years — because of the girls.”
The walls of Scotti’s apartment are covered with photos of the former facilities manager from his days at NBC — many with Cosby, including one signed 16-inch-by-20-inch framed portrait.
“To Frank Scotty, my friend,” reads the misspelled inscription.
Cosby lawyer Martin Singer scoffed at Scotti’s claims.
“What evidence does he have of Mr. Cosby’s involvement?” Singer said Saturday. “How would Scotti know if a woman was a model or a secretary? It appears that his story is pure speculation so that he can get his 15 minutes of fame.”
Scotti says he met Cosby when the comedian was doing standup at the Gaslight Cafe in Greenwich Village. When Cosby went to California for the series “I Spy,” Scotti landed a job at NBC.
The two were reunited when Cosby began shooting “The Cosby Show” in Brooklyn in 1984.
Scotti told Cosby that he was considering retirement — and was surprised by the star’s response.
“He said, ‘You’ll never quit me. You love me,’ ” Scotti recounted.
The Cos then gave him a less sentimental sendoff when he announced his departure.
“He looked at me and said, ‘Leave right now,’ ” Scotti recalled.
He has only seen Cosby once since that day.
“He was a very selfish person,” Scotti said. “He thought he was a genius. He thought he was better than everybody else.”
