D.A.’s Witness in Cosby Case Indicted in N.J.

A prosecution witness in the slaying of Ennis Cosby has been indicted in New Jersey on drug charges that could send her to state prison for up to 10 years, authorities said Wednesday.

Tracy West, 35, of Los Angeles was charged by the Passaic County Grand Jury with possession of cocaine as well as possessing cocaine with intent to distribute. In addition, authorities said, West was charged with the lesser offenses of possessing drug paraphernalia and disorderly conduct--the latter charge for offering police different names when she was arrested.

West, who remains free on $35,000 bond, was arrested in July in Clifton, N.J., after police allegedly found her with about $5,000 worth of cocaine in her car, much of it hidden in the false bottom of a deodorant can in her suitcase.

Her arrest came after she was identified as a witness for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office in its prosecution of Mikail “Michael” Markhasev, 18, in the shooting death of Cosby.

The 27-year-old son of entertainer Bill Cosby was found slain Jan. 16, 1997, his body lying next to his Mercedes-Benz on a side street along the San Diego Freeway in the Sepulveda Pass.

While officials have not disclosed West’s role in the case, it is believed that she was among a group of people who, with Markhasev, attended a party shortly before Cosby’s slaying. And, records show, West, who also goes by the name of Nicole Lin Ashley, was living last year at a residence along Mulholland Drive not far from where Cosby was found slain.

In New Jersey, Chief Assistant Prosecutor William Gradisher said West was indicted after the 23-person grand jury heard evidence in the case last week.

The case was only recently presented to the grand jury, he said, because authorities needed to await the results of state tests measuring the amount of cocaine allegedly found in West’s car. The state report, he said, found that she had about 3 ounces of cocaine, enough to raise the drug possession accusation to the higher-level charge of possession with intent to distribute.

If convicted on that count, the most serious facing her, West could be sent to prison in New Jersey for five to 10 years, Gradisher said.

West’s attorney in the drug case, Robert J. Galluccio, said Wednesday that he had not seen the charges but maintained his client’s innocence.

Before outlining a defense, Galluccio said, he intends to review not only the allegations presented by authorities but accusations that his client may have been set up in the drug case to smear her as a prosecution witness in Markhasev’s trial.

“At one point, there was an allegation that she was being set up out here . . . that these charges were trumped up,” said Galluccio, who declined to say who made such accusations.

Citing a gag order in the Markhasev case, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office in Los Angeles said there would be no comment about West’s indictment.

But it seemed clear that whenever she is called as a witness, West’s indictment will be raised as an issue by Markhasev’s attorneys, who last year requested and received a court order requiring prosecutors to turn over all records on the criminal backgrounds of prospective witnesses.

Galluccio, who was not representing West when she was arrested, said he has not substantiated the accusation that she was set up in the drug case. But he said that suspicion has been hovering over the case since not long after West was arrested by Clifton police, who reportedly were acting on an anonymous tip when they took her into custody.

“Let’s just say there are people out there who are afraid of her testimony,” Galluccio said.

He added: “If you wanted to connect all the dots, you could say someone out in California wants to dirty her up.”

West, now living with her mother in New Orleans, probably will be arraigned in New Jersey in the next five to six weeks.

Markhasev’s murder trial is scheduled to begin next month.