2 Sentenced for Sale of Goods With Forgeries

A U.S. District Court judge sentenced a former Secret Service officer to 16 months in federal prison Monday for selling sports memorabilia bearing the forged signature of former President Ronald Reagan--the man he guarded for 13 years.

Randolph Espinosa, 46, of Ramona, and Richard Schwartz, 59, a Canoga Park pawnbroker, pleaded guilty earlier this year to mail fraud. Prosecutors say the pair peddled $110,000 worth of fake goods, including baseballs and bats, football helmets and denim jackets, ostensibly signed by Reagan and other presidents and their wives.

Schwartz, of Moorpark, repaid the $110,000 to customers before he was indicted last fall, his attorney said. U.S. District Judge Laughlin E. Waters, who sentenced Espinosa, on Monday ordered Schwartz to serve eight months in federal prison.

Waters said Espinosa deserved a stiffer sentence because he violated the high trust placed in him when he was assigned to guard Reagan, according to Assistant U.S. Atty. Marc Harris.

Some of the items, which sold for hundreds of dollars each, were eventually peddled on the Home Shopping Network.

“There’s just a lot of money out there,” Harris said. “You look at the frenzy that the Kennedy auction generated. . . . Anybody who would pay $210,000 for the fake pearls Jackie wore--why not buy cowboy boots signed by Ronald Reagan?”

Schwartz’s attorney Joel Levine said it all began when Espinosa approached Schwartz at his Canoga Park pawnshop in late 1994 and suggested the scam. In the wake of Reagan’s announcement that he has Alzheimer’s disease, Schwartz began selling the signed mementos to collectors. He soothed concerns over credibility by sharing intimate details about the Reagans’ life on their Santa Barbara County ranch, collectors said.

Soon the items began flowing in--hundreds of baseballs, bats, a football helmet inscribed “The Gipper,” cowboy boots and even a baseball supposedly signed by John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jackie, Harris said. To skeptics, Schwartz displayed a photograph of Reagan signing the mementos--actually a picture of a Reagan impersonator, Harris said.

Although Espinosa eventually pleaded guilty, he maintained that some of the items were genuine.

A remorseful Schwartz, who had to borrow money from friends to repay buyers, has agreed to give the sports equipment to the government. Cleansed of the signatures, they will be distributed to Little Leagues and Boys & Girls Clubs.