The process server arrived at Ervin Santana’s gated manor in Clearwater, Fla., at 8 p.m. Dec. 5 and punched numbers into the callbox.

A woman answered. It was Friday. Night had fallen hours earlier.

Brandi Trenary told the woman she had documents for Santana, the free-agent starting pitcher who a week later would sign the richest free-agent contract in Minnesota Twins history — four years, $55 million.

The woman on the callbox identified herself only as Santana’s wife, even though he is not legally married. She told Trenary she did not believe the process server and threatened to call the police before hanging up.

Trenary called the Pinellas County sheriff herself. She was trying to serve Santana with papers for a lawsuit filed by a South Florida jeweler accusing the pitcher of falsifying documents to avoid paying for $40,000 worth of bling.

Stymied at the gate, Trenary climbed into her car, backed out of the driveway and waited 40 minutes until two deputies arrived and ordered her to leave.

The next day, another process server named Lydia Velez went to Santana’s house. A woman who answered the callbox said Santana did not live there and hung up, so Velez taped the documents to the gate of the $3 million house and left.

ROUGH START

Santana has yet to throw a pitch for the Twins, but the 2008 all star is embroiled in separate off-field controversies that have muddied his profile and raise questions about his judgment.

Last Friday, Major League Baseball suspended Santana 80 games after the 32-year-old right-hander tested positive for steroids.

Earlier last week, the Pioneer Press obtained court records chronicling a lawsuit accusing Santana of stiffing Major League Jewelers Inc., a family-run business near the Everglades that caters to ballplayers and celebrities, on a $40,000 tab.

Further investigation revealed Santana is being sued for civil theft and defamation, accused of falsifying appraisals to avoid paying $40,000 on a $42,150 purchase agreement for customized necklaces, bracelets, pendants and earrings, according to court records.

Major League Jewelers is seeking $160,000 in damages in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court.

“I did not receive the jewelry I bargained for,” Santana maintains in an affidavit. “I should not be stuck with a bill to pay for items that do not conform to the agreement with a merchant.”

MLJ president Joseph Tacher claims Santana defamed his company by calling the gems “fake” in a letter refusing to pay off the debt.

Moreover, MLJ subpoenaed the gemologist Santana hired hoping to prove the jewelry was worthless. According to court records, the gem dealer obtained appraisals purportedly indicating the jewelry not only was legitimate but actually worth more than the pitcher agreed to pay.

Santana, through his Florida attorney, Darren Heitner, denies the allegations and said MLJ failed to provide the items he ordered. Heitner said his client tried to return the jewelry and resolve the dispute, but MLJ demanded full payment.

He declined to comment further about the lawsuit.

Because Santana never responded to the complaint and summons taped to his gate Dec. 6, a judge on Jan. 15 issued a default judgment in favor of Major League Jewelers. Santana says he was out of the country and not properly served, therefore the judgment should be dismissed.

A hearing is scheduled Thursday before Judge Samantha Ruiz-Cohen, who will allow MLJ to pursue its claims at trial or grant Santana’s request for dismissal. Santana, who is serving his suspension at home in Clearwater, Fla., is not required to attend.

HOW MUCH?

On Sunday, 11 days after reporting to Twins spring training in Fort Myers, Santana swore out an affidavit acknowledging that he and Major League Jewelers had done business multiple times without issue.

He signed a purchase agreement with MLJ on Sept. 23, when he was with the Atlanta Braves, according to court records, and made a $2,150 down payment. But, Santana wrote in his affidavit, “The jewelry provided … was not the jewelry that I ordered and was certainly not up to the standard of quality that was demanded.”

On Oct. 23, Santana claimed in writing to MLJ the purchase was “fake jewelry,” and in court records his lawyer, Heitner, said, “Mr. Santana has appraisals to prove same.”

Tacher and his attorney, Steven Lachterman, have seized upon those appraisals as proof that Santana has known for months the jewelry was legitimate and that he tried to conceal their appraised value, according to a lawsuit filed Nov. 25, two weeks before the Twins signed Santana — their marquee offseason acquisition.

Around that time, Santana paid a gemologist at Coffin and Trout Fine Jewelers in Chandler, Ariz., to appraise six gold and diamond men’s and women’s bracelets, necklaces and cross pendants.

The appraisals were turned over to MLJ’s attorney without any retail values listed, according to court records, and Lachterman later subpoenaed the original documents from the gemologist, Catherine Fitzgibbon. On March 17, she emailed Lachterman appraisals for the six items she sent to Santana’s attorneys in November with itemized values totaling $37,910.

“I have reprinted the documents and re-signed them, but that is the only difference between this copy and the copy in the possession of Mr. Santana,” Fitzgibbon wrote, according to the email MLJ filed with the court.

Fitzgibbon also valued at $7,000 earrings Santana purchased but did not have appraised. In the end, Santana’s $42,150 purchase was appraised $2,760 more by the gemologist he hired to debunk the jewelry’s value, according to court records.

MLJ accuses Santana or his representatives of redacting the value from the original appraisals they submitted with “white out,” according to court documents.

COLLATERAL DAMAGES

Major League Jewelers claims on its website that for more than 40 years it has “established itself as the leading international diamond, karat and silver jeweler” with a catalogue of more than “30,000 items for immediate delivery to satisfy our customer needs.”

Photographed clients include baseball players Edwin Jackson, Marlon Byrd, Hanley Ramirez and CC Sabathia, plus NBA star Dwyane Wade, rapper Timbaland and hotel heiress Paris Hilton.

Santana, who has won 119 games in a 10-year major league career, was slotted to be the Twins’ No. 2 starter behind ace Phil Hughes before he was suspended.

Conflicting accounts of Santana’s relationship with Amy McMurtray, the mother of their two children, are part of the tangled litigation. The couple has claimed to be married for as many as seven years, as recently as his Dec. 13 introductory news conference at Target Field.

Santana and McMurtray are not married, according to a person close to Santana, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the source was not authorized to comment about the pitcher’s personal life. But according to court records, Trenary wrote in her report that McMurtray identied herself as Santana’s wife.

One of the deputies who responded to the process server’s call, however, said she identified herself as Santana’s girlfriend, according to the incident report he filed.

Santana did not name McMurtray in his affidavit but identified the woman living at his house as his girlfriend, claiming she was “harassed by an individual claiming to be delivering a pizza.”

“She told me that her response was to call the police and complain about the unsolicited individual coming to the premises,” Santana testified in his affidavit.

MLJ accuses McMurtray of attempting to avoid being served. Wife or girlfriend, the jeweler argues, McMurtray can be served legal papers on Santana’s behalf. The pitcher says he was out of the country at the time and argues further that taping the lawsuit to the outer gate of his house was improper.

Under Florida’s civil theft statute, MLJ is seeking the $40,000 balance for the jewelry, plus triple damages of $160,000 — or 0.29 percent of Santana’s guaranteed contract with the Twins.

Follow Brian Murphy at twitter.com/murphPPress.