Golden Image Tarnished : Court: Once Stanley B. Gordon was an admired teacher. On Monday, he pleaded not guilty to charges of swindling students with a get-rich-quick scheme.

Prosecutors say Stanley B. Gordon, schoolteacher and purported gold dealer, did not discriminate in choosing his victims.

They included his friends, a next-door neighbor, and students and colleagues at Santa Ana High School where Gordon taught a popular jewelry class. Another was a jobless and disabled man whose son Gordon allegedly persuaded to invest his father’s life savings in a get-rich-quick gold scheme.

For more than a year, investigators say, Gordon, 54, pocketed money from investors and then splurged, buying a new Jeep for one girlfriend and taking jaunts to Paris and Las Vegas, where he spent $4,000 a night. His world collapsed last week when prosecutors filed a 50-count indictment, alleging that Gordon defrauded 13 people of more than $250,000. Authorities say they suspect that at least 12 other victims lost another half million dollars in the teacher’s scheme, which involved phony gold futures contracts.

Gordon pleaded not guilty Monday at an arraignment before Municipal Judge Glenn A. Mahler in Newport Beach. His lawyers say the Newport Beach schoolteacher was himself a victim of another gold dealer who disappeared with his and others people’s hard-earned cash.

But students, police and prosecutors tell a different story about a respected teacher and track coach who preyed on those who trusted him the most.

“People who commit fraud on others are like wolves who look for sheep,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. William Overtoom last week. “Many of Gordon’s victims revered and honored him, their teacher, but he used and abused those feelings.”

The allegations caught those who knew Gordon best by surprise.

Colleagues described him as an exemplary teacher, a fixture in the Santa Ana Unified School District where he taught high school arts and crafts since 1971. His jewelry class was so popular at Santa Ana High School that school administrators had to restrict the number of students who could enroll.

“The students loved his classes and he developed a reputation as an excellent teacher in the jewelry area,” said Don Champlin, assistant superintendent for the school district. “He gave his students individual attention and helped them along.”

Among Gordon’s responsibilities was teaching a jewelry class for the central Orange County Regional Occupation Program. Some people who signed up for the course wanted to make jewelry for a hobby. But many others were either unemployed or wanted to change jobs and hoped to learn enough to begin careers in precious metals, school officials and students said.

In 1991, his students said, Gordon began making a sales pitch during class for his own business. He told them that he operated a small gold refinery with some partners, and that he could buy used or scrap gold at very low prices--between $150-$225 an ounce--refine it, then sell it at spot prices. He talked of making up to a 50% profit on each ounce, and urged his students to invest with him, police said. The investors could withdraw their money in cash or gold or simply roll over their investment, he allegedly told them.

Georgia Marsh, a student in the occupation program, said she was mildly skeptical about Gordon’s spiel at first.

“I told him that if anything happens to my money, I was going to suffer embarrassment with my friends and family,” said Marsh, a 35-year-old office administrator from Costa Mesa. “But he looked me square in the eye and said, ‘I guarantee that you’re 100% fine.’ ”

Marsh invested $5,000 and encouraged her friends to invest several thousand more.

Douglas Gilmour, a 58-year-old Fullerton retiree who also attended the occupation class, also invested $5,000. His classmate, Victor Cook of Corona del Mar, told his 88-year-old mother about the investment’s wonderful returns. Together, they put in $55,000. A Long Beach man gave Gordon as much as $90,000, according to prosecutors.

Students said Gordon, who was a meticulous instructor, became less interested in teaching them how to mix metals, solder jewelry, and make wax models for their designs.

Instead, he would come to class, write the day’s closing price of gold on the London Exchange on the blackboard, and proceed to lecture the class about how much money they could make if they invested in his refined gold, students and police said.

Marsh, Cook and others said they became increasingly skeptical that Gordon could deliver on his promises.

“On paper, my money was multiplying very fast, so I asked him, ‘Stan, do you have the money to cover me?’ ” said Cook, 48. “He said, ‘Jim, I am a millionaire. If I have to I could raise $14 million in 24 hours.’ ”

And when Cook and the others requested portions of their investment, investigators said, Gordon returned it during class, leading them and even students who had not invested to believe that the gold business was legitimate.

But Robert Hardy, a Newport Beach police investigator who has been looking into Gordon’s dealings for the past eight months, said the teacher’s public display was a sham. An review of Gordon’s bank records revealed that he was spending investors’ money to buy gold at spot price to appease some investors, paying off other investors, and using the rest to support his “very high lifestyle,” Hardy said.

Earlier this year, school district officials received complaints that Gordon was using his class to gain investors for his business. Champlin, the school district’s assistant superintendent, said Gordon’s supervisor investigated the allegation and couldn’t find any evidence to remove or discipline him.

In March, Gordon vanished.

His wife, Nancy Marie Gordon, reported him missing and police found his car near Los Angeles International Airport. Gordon had taken off for Paris, and from there he went to Madrid, Hardy said.

In Orange County, investors were in a frenzy to recover their money, filing small claims and civil lawsuits and complaints with Newport Beach and Santa Ana police.

Marsh said she visited small claims court in Newport Beach 19 times before securing a $5,000 judgment, with which she attempted to garnish Gordon’s $45,000 salary from the school district.

But Gordon, who returned to the country April 28, has since filed for protection from his creditors in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Ana. His wife also filed for divorce and a marital settlement gave her most of the couple’s assets.

In court papers, Gordon stated he owns only a watch, some clothes, his golf clubs, a $50 checking account, and his $70,000 retirement fund.

He also claimed that a husband and wife who operated a company named International Metals and Precious Gems Inc. disappeared with $350,000 that were his and other investors’ money. Overtoom, the deputy district attorney, said investigators have so far not found any trace that the couple or their company exist.

Gordon also appeared in Municipal Court in Newport Beach last week to plead for a lower bail amount.

His attorney, Robert Dominick Coviello, urged Mahler to set his client’s bail at $25,000, rather than a higher amount. He noted Gordon’s longstanding ties to the area--the teacher has lived in Orange County for 31 years--and said his client has a heart condition. Gordon surrendered his passport to Newport Beach police shortly after his return from Europe and has no plans to flee, Coviello said.

Overtoom disagreed. “If there was ever a case where the defendant has the ability to flee, this is the case.”

He said Gordon boasted that he has contacts in New York who could get him a fake passport at a moment’s notice. Gordon also has traveled in Europe and could disappear there easily, Overtoom said.

Mahler set bail at $75,000. Gordon was taken to the Newport Beach detention facility.

If he is convicted, Gordon is liable for $12.5 million in penalties, or $250,000 for each count filed against him. He also faces up to 12 years in prison.

Several investors said Friday they have given up on recovering their money and their only hope now is to see Gordon spend time in jail.

“I am a big boy and I’ve been stung before,” said Gilmour, the Fullerton retiree. “What happened is enough to make anyone cry. I’m fighting to recover my money, but I’m not holding my breath.”