John Stamos Extortion Case—and His Rep—in Jury's Hands

Closing arguments paint two different images of former Full House star in blackmail case

By Josh Grossberg Jul 15, 2010 7:55 PMTags
John StamosAP Photo/The Mining Journal, Andy Nelson-Zaleski

It's officially a full house in the jury room.

With John Stamos looking on from the front row, the two sides finished closing arguments in the TV hunk's extortion trial. Jurors are now deliberating the fate of two Michigan residents accused of trying to shake Stamos down for nearly $700,000 in a case that could turn on whether they believe the erstwhile Uncle Jesse is a decent guy targeted by opportunists or a teen-chasing creep with an appetite for cocaine and strippers.

Here's where things stand.

Allison Coss, 24, and Scott Sippola, 31, each face one felony count of extortion and misusing interstate commerce. If convicted, they could face a maximum five year sentence in a federal prison.

Hoping to persuade the jury that the duo had criminal intentions, Assistant U.S. Attorney Maarten Vermaat outlined a conspiracy in which Coss and Sippola contacted Stamos offering to sell him pictures supposedly taken back in 2004 showing the ER star surrounded by strippers bending over a table of cocaine.

According to the prosecutor, the pair threatened to sell the compromising pics to a tabloid unless Stamos forked over the supposedly bargain-basement price of $680,000. Such pictures have never turned up.

"I don't think Shakespeare could write a story to set up a fake blackmail scheme to set up a real blackmail scheme. But that is exactly what they did," Vermaat told the panelists before they retreated to the jury room. "This is completely 100 percent made up."

The feds called several federal agents and police officers all of whom said the pictures didn't even exist.

Defense attorney Sarah Henderson, however, suggested that while her clients might have been boneheaded in the way they approached Stamos to sell the pictures, they weren't lying about the existence of such images.

"What happens to the pictures? I don't know the answer to that. I wish I did," she said.

Testifying in her own defense Wednesday, Coss told the court that before her arrest back in December, she had in her possession at least one incriminating photo of Stamos and said cocaine—supposedly taken in at an Orlando hotel room when she first met him.

Stamos has been a fixture at the trial all week. Although he has often appeared tense in court, he has been all smiles outside, posing for photographs and signing autographs for fans gathered at the court.

On the witness stand Tuesday, Stamos said he met Coss through friends at a local 18-and-over nightclub after he had split with ex-wife Rebecca Romijn, but the two were just "friends." Despite assertions by the defense that he was hitting on a minor and seducing her in a hot tub (Coss was 17 at the time), he insisted Coss told him she was in college on spring break.

Per Stamos' account, they saw each other occasionally and exchanged "flirty" emails but nothing beyond that.

Then last year, per Stamos, he started getting threatening emails about the photos.

He tipped off the FBI, who set up a sting and busted Coss and Sippola as they went to collect a money drop at a Michigan airport.

Now a panel of their peers will decide whether the twosome will have to pay—in prison.

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