Man’s Sex Parties Broke No Law, City Finds : Investigation: Costa Mesa officials, discovering little support for a neighbor’s complaint of debauchery, reluctantly give Bill Goodwin the OK to carry on. ‘I’m so proud,’ says the 71-year-old of his victory.

A white-haired grandfather and self-styled “stud” can host all the partner-swapping swinger parties he wants, city officials reluctantly said Friday.

Finding little support for a neighbor’s complaints of debauchery run amok, officials gave 71-year-old Bill Goodwin the green light to continue running a club for “swingers” in his modest two-story house, which he calls the Panther Palace.

“God, I’m so happy!” said Goodwin, slamming his phone down with glee after getting the news from Costa Mesa City Manager Allan L. Roeder.

Most of Goodwin’s unabashed libido bashes attract about 40 married couples of all ages, who bring potluck suppers and check their inhibitions at the door.

Despite his wife’s recent battle with breast cancer--and after her death last March--Goodwin’s party has raged uninterrupted for the past nine years.

But city officials threatened to take action last week when a neighbor complained that Goodwin’s party-goers were snarling traffic and gamboling up and down the street in their altogether.

Along with the watchful eye of police and city officials, the neighbor’s complaint brought a torrent of national attention upon Goodwin, who found his anti-Norman Rockwell image the topic of tabloid TV shows and late-night monologues.

“That Jay Leno,” Goodwin said Friday, when it seemed the controversy was finally settled. “Some day I’m going to take my teeth out and throw them at him!”

Goodwin, who boasts shamelessly about his bedroom prowess, said he had spent a frantic week worried that he was about to be ordered to change his lifestyle.

Then came the phone call from Roeder, followed by a press release exonerating the Panther Palace, and suddenly the man who prefers to be called “Wild Bill” was his old self again.

“I have won the battle,” he declared, his cheeks growing ruddy with triumph and relief. “It has been proved that prominent people come here. Doctors, lawyers, schoolteachers, et cetera, and they do not run up and down the street naked. I have proved this to the world.”

In fact, Roeder’s statement did not go that far. It merely concluded that Goodwin was breaking no laws.

“There is insubstantial evidence at this point in time to request that owner of the club, Mr. Bill Goodwin, cease operations,” the statement reads in part.

Thus, the lights will go down and the music will come up on schedule tonight, though Goodwin quickly noted that, to be safe, the next few parties will be low-key affairs.

Many of Goodwin’s neighbors would not comment about the city’s decision Friday, though one man said he has lived in the area 24 years and Goodwin’s parties have never disturbed him.

“I go on a couple of walks daily, and I have never seen anything,” said Joe Vince, a 63-year-old retired purchasing agent, adding: “To each his own.”

Costa Mesa Mayor Joe Erickson was less forgiving.

Just because city officials and police found no grounds to shut Goodwin down, Erickson cautioned, does not mean Goodwin is a good neighbor.

“I don’t think he is funny or a hero or a role model,” Erickson said. “I think he has not been a good neighbor. I think patrons come in from all over Southern California. He employs a security guard who is basically a thug. That is one of the reasons I think it is a business.”

But proving that Goodwin operates a commercial business, in violation of residential zoning ordinances, would require more evidence than city officials could gather during their preliminary investigation, Erickson said.

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Goodwin assured city officials that he is a libertine, not a businessman. He insisted that he never charges admission to his house, though he admitted accepting $30 donations, which go toward a disc jockey, security guard and general upkeep of his dark bungalows and many bedrooms.

“There was not enough evidence to prove he was running a business,” Erickson said. “We would need to prove the $30 is a charge. We would have to have an undercover investigation to do that.”

But if city officials want to attend Goodwin’s parties, they are more than welcome, Goodwin told the city manager Friday.

“Hey, any time you want to come on over, even if you want to attend the social side with your wife sometime, come on over,” Goodwin shouted into the phone, as a girlfriend folded towels and laundry left over from the last shindig.

Goodwin reassured Roeder that many couples do not donate to his parties. But those who do donate help him with important expenses, he said, including maintenance of his 3,000-square-foot house, which is decorated in a black panther motif.

“Pretty soon I got to get new carpeting,” he told Roeder. “They’ve worn my carpet out to nothing, and it’s going to cost $6,000!”

After hanging up, a delighted Goodwin paced the black-and-white linoleum disco floor he built in his living room.

It seemed he was about to kick up his Reebok heels and dance, though the jukebox near the changing rooms was dark and silent.

Outside, a cool breeze shuffled the palm trees that shade his homemade workout shed and 40-person Jacuzzi, which he keeps heated to a constant 100 degrees.

“I’m so overjoyed, I don’t know what to do,” he said. “It hasn’t hit me yet. I feel like I need a brick wall to fall on me.”

Goodwin said police told him it was remarkable that only one neighbor in nine years had complained.

“This is our lifestyle,” he said grandly. “It may not be good for everybody, but we love our lifestyle. I’m so proud and happy.”