Pawnbroker, Ex-U.S. Agent Indicted in Sale of Phony Reagan Memorabilia : Crime: A sports store and a collector had bought signed baseballs, bats and other items until a writing expert said the scrawl wasn’t the Gipper’s.

Better take that baseball signed by former President Ronald Reagan off the mantelpiece and give it a good look.

The owner of a Canoga Park pawnshop and a former U.S. Secret Service agent have been indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly selling phony presidential memorabilia--hundreds of baseballs, bats, even denim jackets supposedly autographed by Reagan and other presidents and first ladies--some of which eventually made their way onto the Home Shopping Network.

When his customers demanded proof that the articles were genuine, Richard Schwartz, a Moorpark man who runs Buena Jewelry and Loan in Canoga Park, passed along a photograph of a Reagan impersonator signing the items, Assistant U.S. Atty. Marc Harris said. Certificates of authenticity were signed on Reagan stationery provided by Randolph Espinosa, 45, who once guarded Reagan, Harris said.

Much of the memorabilia reached a Laguna Niguel Reagan enthusiast, whose hopes of becoming “Ronald Reagan’s biggest collector in the world” were shattered when a handwriting expert told him the scrawl on the balls was not the real Gipper’s.

Espinosa referred questions to his attorney, who would not comment. Schwartz could not be reached. The two men, who remain free on their own recognizance, are scheduled to be arraigned Oct. 23 before a U.S. magistrate.

Schwartz and Espinosa were bipartisan in their fraud, said Harris, who is prosecuting the pair on mail fraud charges that could land them in prison for 25 years if they are convicted.

One baseball they sold to Sports Alley in Whittier was ostensibly signed by John and Jacqueline Kennedy in November, 1963, as they flew to Texas, where JFK was assassinated, said Steve Widgerson, the store’s owner. Accompanying the ball was a letter of verification on Secret Service stationery supposedly signed by an agent assigned to protect Kennedy, Widgerson said. Jacqueline Kennedy, the letter writer confided, had been unable to shake the sense that something awful was about to happen.

“I don’t know why he would choose something such as a President” to use in his scam, Widgerson said of Schwartz. “It just seemed like playing with fire. Who would even dare attempt something like that?”

Widgerson admitted that Schwartz had quite a pitch. Schwartz approached Widgerson shortly after Reagan’s announcement that he had Alzheimer’s disease in November, 1994, and claimed to know a Secret Service agent who was protecting the former President, he said.

As proof, the 59-year-old pawnshop owner produced baseballs ostensibly bearing Reagan’s signature, along with a certificate of authentication on the 40th President’s official stationery. Schwartz related such intimate details about Ronald and Nancy Reagan’s life, ranch and office that Widgerson thought he had to be genuine.

“We bought a couple of baseballs from him,” Widgerson said, “and from there it escalated.”

In March, Harris said, Schwartz claimed that his agent was going to spend a weekend with Reagan and told Widgerson to send anything he wanted autographed. Widgerson shipped out a load of bats and baseballs, which were returned with Reagan’s insignia. To rid Widgerson of any skepticism, Schwartz displayed his photo of the Reagan impersonator.

Encouraged by the success of his scam, Schwartz then sent Widgerson a plethora of presidential mementos, according to Harris: cowboy boots supposedly signed by Reagan, a baseball ostensibly signed by all five living presidents, a bat allegedly signed by Ronald and Nancy Reagan, and Notre Dame football helmets on which Reagan was said to have inscribed “The Gipper.”

Many of the items Widgerson bought were snatched up by Michael Standish, a 30-year-old Laguna Niguel collector. “I am probably one of Ronald Reagan’s biggest fans,” Standish said in an interview last week. “I was building a very, very large supply of Ronald Reagan items.”

A collector of everything from sports memorabilia to ancient Egyptian coins, Standish was a natural buyer for the roughly 200 baseballs, 70 bats and 25 footballs supposedly signed by Reagan. A few of these were resold at auctions and on cable TV’s Home Shopping Network, fetching up to $250 per item, authorities said.

Overall, Harris said, Standish and Widgerson spent $80,000 to $100,000 on the phony pieces.

In early June, Standish casually showed some of the memorabilia to Lloyd Brock, a handwriting specialist who works for the Treasury Department in Los Angeles.

Standish said Brock quickly pronounced the inscriptions fake. They called the Reagans’ office, which contacted the FBI.

Enraged, Standish filed a lawsuit against Schwartz as he and Widgerson began to buy back the merchandise from customers who had believed it to be genuine. Even as he was refusing to pay Schwartz for any more memorabilia and preparing to file a lawsuit, Standish said, Schwartz tried to sell him documents Reagan supposedly signed as part of his Strategic Defense Initiative.

Schwartz and Espinosa were indicted Oct. 3.