Suspect Led the High Life, Records Show : Embezzlement: The man who allegedly bilked California of $5.1 million appears in police files under an assumed name, living in a small city. He was a big spender and generous tipper.

The man accused of embezzling $5.1 million from the California Water Resources Control Board was a big spender and generous tipper during the four years he lived under an assumed name in this city near Phoenix, according to neighbors, vendors and police.

Louis Wayne Fowler, 35, who went by the name William David Rice, would pay as much as $1,300 in a single night to women ordered from escort services, according to police investigation files. The reports say that he told officers on one occasion that he hired women for nude dancing and to have sex with him at his home “all the time.”

On Oct. 13, the reports state, Fowler told several officers who had been sent to his home to investigate a complaint of assault that he had given a $500 tip to each of two women dancers--on top of a regular $300 escort service fee--so that they would engage in sexual intercourse with him. When they refused, he became abusive and violent, the police files state.

However, although Mesa police said that Fowler has been investigated for sexual misconduct, assault, possession of dangerous drugs and possession of marijuana, his only arrest was in 1988 for drunk driving.

In interviews with the night manager of a bar and restaurant frequented by Fowler and with seven of his neighbors, a picture emerged of the suspect as a free spender who enjoyed entertaining young women.

“There were so many visitors coming to the house that we could not help but be impressed,” recalled Christ Strauch, who lives across the street from Fowler’s home. “We particularly enjoyed seeing two blonde women in a silver Maserati convertible. It seemed like they came every Sunday.”

Thomas Harrian, the night manager of an establishment called The Dirty Drummer next to a video store Fowler operated in Mesa until about a year ago, said Fowler often patronized his bar and restaurant. Harrian said it was Fowler’s custom to order the most expensive steak dinner on the menu and then leave tips of 80% of the bill. He said Fowler was often accompanied by one or two exotic-looking women.

Some of the residents who lived nearby said Fowler had made attempts to be a good neighbor. Bob Neville, for instance, said that when one of Fowler’s two big watchdogs killed “our little dog,” Fowler was extremely apologetic and offered amends and payment.

But neighbors also told of police coming to their cul-de-sac on the northwest side of Mesa to question Fowler about what they thought were a series of minor offenses--such as leaving his 18-foot power boat parked on the street. Additionally, they said, Fowler’s home was burglarized three years ago and that he told them guns and video equipment were stolen.

Friends and attorneys refused to discuss Fowler, who is in the Maricopa County Jail in Phoenix in lieu of a $6.85-million bond pending a California extradition request.

Two women occupying the comfortable home where Fowler was living--which, according to property records, was sold by Fowler earlier this year for $90,000--refused to say anything.

Mesa Police Sgt. Michael J. Hayes said the investigation of the Oct. 13 incident, in which a young woman from an escort service accused Fowler of ripping a $300 watch from her wrist and taking her briefcase after she refused to have sex with him, is continuing.

Hayes said an earlier investigation of rape allegations against Fowler was dropped when the woman declined to press charges.

Hayes also said an investigation of Fowler for possession of marijuana in 1987 had been dropped because the circumstances of discovery made a conviction unlikely.

Meanwhile in Sacramento, a Municipal judge refused to allow Fowler’s mother to post bond for Fowler’s ex-wife, Jill Baume, 26, because of allegations that the mother had received embezzled money from her son. Baume has been charged with filing a false tax return and receiving stolen property in connection with the alleged embezzlement.

After her arrest, Baume told investigators that Fowler had given his parents money to invest in businesses and that they knew “where the money had come from,” testified Andrea Machem, a State Department of Justice investigator.

Fowler’s mother, Linda, a retired state employee, testified that she had invested in a video rental business. She also said she recently cashed in $25,000 in South African gold coins. When he was arrested in Arizona, Fowler was operating a video rental store and kept gold coins at his home. But she testified that she did not receive funds from her son and had no knowledge of the alleged embezzlement.

Linda Fowler told the judge that she wanted to bail out her former daughter-in-law because she felt as if Baume was her own daughter. “She didn’t divorce the family,” she said

Times staff writers Richard C. Paddock and Carl Ingram contributed to this story.