By JET CITY MAVEN STAFF

The man accused of assuming the identity of a deceased former Ballard High classmate and proceeding to steal money from two Microsoft millionaires after convincing them to become his business partners, has been arrested and is currently behind bars in a San Diego jail awaiting the first of several trials.

The suspect, 39-year-old James Reuben Rowe, was arrested Oct. 13 by San Diego police. He faces criminal charges in California, Washington and Colorado for a series of offenses that include bank and wire fraud, grand theft auto, burglary and false impersonation.

In Seattle, he went by the name Steve Heitman when he convinced Microsoft employee Dale Watanabe to back his plans to open a ski shop along Lake City Way called Nordic Sports Haus in November 1998.

"Heitman" was profiled in the Jet City Maven's March 1999 issue. He told the Maven that he was a Ballard native of Norwegian and German descent who graduated from Ballard High School in 1977 and later attended the University of Washington before joining the Army. Upon completing his military stint, he said he then returned to school to earn a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Heidelberg in Germany. He said while in Europe, he became employed by a ski making company where he helped design a new line of skis. Upon arriving back in the U.S., he said he then spent a year living the life of a traveling ski bum before relocating in Seattle where he promptly got a job for a ski shop in Bellevue. He opened Nordic after Watanabe, one of his Bellevue ski shop customers, offered to write him a check to get the business started.

The two later recruited another Microsoft worker to become a third partner, and proceeded to expand Nordic into a chain that included a store in Woodinville and The Good Sport store in Green Lake, which they purchased last year. The trio also bought a used luxury car dealership along Lake City Way called Sports Cars International.

When "Heitman," who had been given the responsibility of running the businesses, suddenly disappeared in March, reportedly with a large amount of his partners' money, he not only left the ski shops and car dealership in deep debt - he also left his wife of one year, Jolene, who also worked at Nordic.

His stunned partners closed the businesses, laid off their employees and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Watanabe also filed for personal bankruptcy.

"Heitman" became the object of an FBI manhunt, making the U.S. Marshals' list of the 15 most wanted fugitives in the nation.

Meanwhile, rumors began circulating among former Nordic employees and creditors that "Heitman" wasn't really who he claimed to be.

A several month investigation by the Eastside Journal newspaper found that the real Steve Heitman was a graduate of Ballard High School who died in 1980 in an accident along the Icicle River near Leavenworth. The Eastside Journal later reported, thanks to a tip from the suspect's family, the fake "Heitman's" true identity: James Rowe, who, it turns out, was a classmate of the dead Heitman.

Subsequent articles in the Journal revealed even more details about Rowe, including the fact that he had used false identities before to cheat people out of their money in other states and that he had been arrested, jailed and convicted three previous times.

Rowe's latest arrest came while he was preparing to be married yet again, this time to a woman who knew him by yet another assumed identity: "Mike Grogan." Rowe, in his new identity, claimed to be of Irish descent and a former football player who was also the brother of former New England Patriots quarterback Steve Grogan. Rowe, under his identity as "Grogan," opened an Irish steak house restaurant in San Diego, claiming that the menu items were based on time-honored family recipes from the "Emerald Isle."

After his arrest, Rowe confessed to the Eastside Journal that "I'm a con man ... I have been my entire life." He also said he was "tired of running" and that "I'm looking to do the right thing ... owning up to what I did."

"I feel sorry for the people I've conned," Rowe told the Eastside Journal. "I don't feel sorry for myself." Of course, as the Eastside Journal noted, Rowe made similar comments when he was arrested in 1993.