SAXONBURG — Seated quietly with an almost unmoving straight-ahead stare, 41-year-old Jeffrey Paul Cochran looked nothing like the brash, smooth-talking con man out of central casting.

Still, some might say that his alleged “catch me if you can” exploits came straight from a Hollywood script.

Cochran of Scottville, Mich., is accused of posing as a heart surgeon to scam two Pennsylvania resorts — one in Butler County — and motels in two other states out of tens of thousands of dollars in free lodging and amenities.

He appeared in District Judge Sue Haggerty’s courtroom in Saxonburg on Wednesday for a preliminary hearing on theft-related charges in one of those suspected confidence schemes.

Instead, he gave up his right to the hearing while barely uttering a word.

In the Butler County case, Cochran pretended to be a physician to con Conley Resort on Route 8 in Penn Township out of $1,213 during a six-night stay last summer.

Penn Township police said the defendant checked in at the resort using the name of a fictitious doctor who purportedly was in town to interview for a job at Butler Memorial Hospital.

He signed for all of the charges, including meals and golfing, which were billed to the hospital.

At checkout, Cochran left. But before leaving, he advised that another surgeon, “Dr. Anderson,” may be contacting Conley’s for a future reservation for him “if further (job) interviews were needed” according to court documents.

By the time Conley’s figured out the hoax, the suspect was long gone.

The defendant’s good luck finally turned bad after he was arrested in November on charges stemming from a similar swindle.

Dressed in a Butler County Prison jumpsuit, the defendant, accompanied by his attorney, public defender Ryan Helsel, told Haggerty that he wanted to make restitution to Conley’s.

“He said his family may help him pay the money back,” Helsel said following the proceedings.

In the meantime, he is headed for court on charges of forgery, a felony, and theft by deception, theft of services, false impersonation and identity theft, all misdemeanors.

Cochran is already waiting to be sentenced in Fayette County in another case.

The defendant March 3 pleaded guilty to charges that he stayed at a $500-a-night room at the Nemacolin Woodlands last year while pretending to be a heart surgeon and golf pro who was in town to interview for a job at Uniontown Hospital.

At the ritzy resort for two weeks in May, he charged “multiple items to his house account from the golf shop, restaurants and the resort spa totaling over $16,000,” state police said in charging documents.

Employees finally caught on to the ruse and moved in on Cochran. But it was too late — barely.

The suspect made a narrow escape out a back door. But in beating it, police said, he didn’t have time to take some of his personal identification that was still in his room.

Police quickly got an arrest warrant. But his capture would have to wait until Nov. 12, when law enforcement authorities in Michigan nabbed Cochran after he left his mother’s funeral.

He was later extradited to face charges in Fayette County.

His guilty plea earlier this month to those felony charges was part of a tentative deal with prosecutors.

Under the plea deal, Cochran would serve 3 to 23 months in jail. He would also make good on his unpaid tab at Nemacolin Woodlands.

A final component to the deal: Cochran’s lifetime banishment from the resort.

His sentence is set for May 19.

The defendant, meanwhile, faces more potential court battles outside Pennsylvania for other suspected con jobs.

Authorities in Nebraska say he’s suspected of using the “I’m a doctor” ploy to finagle a free stay at the Candlewood Suites in Lincoln for 47 days, beginning the day after Christmas 2013. His bill in that case topped $3,100.

And in West Virginia, he’s suspected of posing as “Dr. Anderson,” the same suspected pseudonym employed at Conley’s, to hoodwink the Pullman Plaza Hotel in Huntington. The five-month con there, says Cabell County Sheriff’s Office, amounted to $13,000.