COSBYS BLAST TABLOID STORY : COUPLE THREATENS TO SUE ENQUIRER.

Byline: Stacy Finz Daily News Staff Writer

The Cosbys are furious with the National Enquirer - the very tabloid whose reward helped capture the suspect in their son's killing, according to the couple's publicist.

Bill and Camille Cosby say the newspaper's Feb. 4-11 edition defames and maligns them, and have threatened to sue the publication if it doesn't retract certain statements, said spokesman David Brokaw.

The Cosbys' attorney fired off a letter to the Enquirer in early February demanding an apology and correction for describing Camille Cosby as sedated and on the verge of a nervous breakdown and suggesting that she had hired gunmen to find her son's killer.

Editors of the tabloid say they stand by their story.

After the article ran, the Cosbys asked the tabloid to withdraw its $100,000 reward for tips leading to the arrest and conviction of their only son's shooter.

``They no longer wanted the Enquirer involved because they were so angry over the article,'' Brokaw said.

But editors at the tabloid find the whole feud ironic. After all, it was the hefty cash reward that enticed a witness to call the newspaper in January with a tip that led to the arrest of a suspect and may have helped solve the mystery of Ennis Cosby's Jan. 16 killing, said David Perel, executive editor of the National Enquirer.

``There is no way we're backing off the factual basis of our coverage,'' he said. ``There is somewhat of an irony here. But it is my fondest wish that the capturing of Ennis' alleged killer will bring some closure to the family.''

Brokaw said the couple will sue without a retraction of a subheadline that ran on the cover of the Enquirer's early February edition reading ``The grieving mom: She hires $ million gunmen to hunt son's killer'' and a statement that Camille Cosby is sedated and on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

``The Cosbys would never take the law into their own hands,'' Brokaw said. ``The National Enquirer has always had a fine relationship with Bill because they checked out rumors with him before rushing to print. This time they never checked it out.''

Brokaw said the couple is also angry over the article's use of the word mistress in describing Shawn Jackson, the woman with whom Bill Cosby had an affair more than 22 years ago.

``It is incomprehensible that any entity or person can stoop so low to sell a story,'' Camille Cosby wrote in a letter to the editor in the Feb. 6 edition of U.S. Today, complaining not only of the Enquirer's coverage but also of that of The Star and the Globe.

``I cannot begin to describe the pain relative to the loss of our son; and I know that many people have suffered the same tragedy. So why are the tabloids compounding our tragedy with overt lies?''

Perel said statements about million-dollar gunmen in the story refer to the private investigators hired by the Cosbys to assist in locating their son's killer.

``The firm is licensed to use guns,'' he said. ``And at times they do carry guns.''

But Gavin DeBecker, an expert on violent behavior who was hired to assist the Cosby family in managing their role in the Los Angeles Police Department's investigation, says the Enquirer's depiction of him as a hired gunman is ridiculous.

``I am not licensed to carry a gun. And that headline is clearly inaccurate.''

DeBecker also refuted the Enquirer's allegations that Camille Cosby was falling apart and on sedatives. From the day of her son's death, she has been ``emotionally healthy,'' he said.

``Mrs. Cosby was representing the family to the LAPD and the District Attorney's Office,'' he said. ``She clearly wanted to be considered competent. Public figures don't have the thick skin people think they do.''

But Perel countered, ``The quality of our sources are extremely high.

``We've reported the story accurately, and we feel we've contributed to a greater societal good by helping the Los Angeles Police Department solve what was believed to be an unsolvable case. But we regret any pain we have inadvertently caused the family.''

Ennis Cosby, a 27-year-old doctoral student on vacation in Los Angeles, was shot to death as he changed a tire on his Mercedes-Benz convertible atop the Sepulveda Pass.

Two months later, police arrested Mikail Markhasev, 18, of Valley Village on suspicion of murdering Ennis Cosby. Police said they tracked down Markhasev from a tipster, who originally called the National Enquirer seeking the $100,000 reward. The caller said he knew someone who claimed to have been the killer.