Man returned to face rape charges

Authorities say he was living under an assumed name in Oregon. He was extradited to Pasco on Friday.

By MARY CARMICHAEL

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 8, 2000

After nine years, Glen Dale Gordon is back in Pasco County.

Gordon, 43, jumped bail in 1991, authorities say. He was hiding out West until last month, living as Stephen Walter Smith and taking odd jobs as a welder.

Nine years ago on April 8, Gordon was arrested on capital charges of raping a 6-year-old girl in New Port Richey. A week later, he was arrested again on charges of fondling another young girl who was with the 6-year-old.

His legal prognosis didn't look good. In 1989, another young girl had told police Gordon had molested her, too, so he was held without bail.

But Gordon got the bail reduced on June 27, 1991, to $20,000 on the condition that he have no contact with the girls and live in New Port Richey with his mother, Sidney Bavier. His brother, Edward Gordon, went to Frank Maloney of AAA Bail Bonds in New Port Richey and put up a patent for a filtration system as part of the collateral. Bavier put up her house and Glen Gordon got out.

In December 1991, Edward Gordon sent Maloney a copy of a phone bill. It showed long calls from Redding, Calif., to Sidney Bavier's house and had a note at the bottom:

"P.S.: He left on 12/8/91, or real early in the morning of 12/9/91."

Gordon was gone.

Maloney tried to collect the bond's collateral but the patent was worthless and Bavier had declared bankruptcy.

That's when Maloney started circulating fliers all over the West Coast with photos of Gordon. According to the flier, Maloney thought Gordon might be living with a sister in Vancouver, Wash., where he had spent part of his childhood.

Maloney was right. Gordon was in Washington, but he was living under the name Stephen Walter Smith.

Meanwhile, Edward Gordon kept giving Maloney tips. On Dec. 12, 1992, he told Maloney his mother was planning to leave town and join Glen Gordon on the West Coast. Maloney followed her to the airport and watched her plane take off.

Reached in Oregon on Friday by the Times, Sidney Bavier declined to comment.

Eight years passed, and Glen Gordon moved to Portland, Ore. He still was living as Stephen Smith when a detective tracked him down in Lewiston, Idaho, on June 21.

Edward Gordon had phoned the Lewiston police and told them Glen Gordon might be there, driving a beat-up blue truck and working as a welder. Detective Nick Krakalia immediately thought of the power turbines on the Snake and Clearwater rivers, went to a work site there and saw the truck -- and Gordon.

"I asked him what his name was, and he said, "Stephen Smith,' " Krakalia said. "And I said, "No, how about Glen Gordon?' And he said, "Yes, that's me. I'm the guy you're looking for.' And that was it.' "

The odyssey was over. Gordon was extradited from Idaho and booked at the Land O'Lakes jail Friday morning.

Maloney says he hopes Gordon's mother will be prosecuted in Oregon for harboring a fugitive. He's as mad now as he was in 1991, and he's bracing for a call from Gordon, who was being held late Friday on bail of more than $150,000 on charges of capital sexual battery, sexual battery and failure to appear.

But Maloney's not planning to pay his bail this time.

"I hope he calls me collect so I can lace into him and tell him what I think of him," Maloney said. "I didn't know this would happen when I wrote the bond or else I never would have written it."

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