Navy Drops Fake ID Charges Against 8 : Port Hueneme: Two civilians will be arraigned today. They are accused of impersonating officers and penetrating base security with forged credentials.

The Navy has decided to drop charges against eight of 10 civilians accused of using bogus military identification to penetrate security at the U.S. Naval Construction Battalion Center during the Persian Gulf War, officials announced Thursday.

The remaining two are scheduled to be arraigned today before a U.S. magistrate in Ventura on charges of impersonating a military officer and using forged military credentials to enter the Seabee base in Port Hueneme on Feb. 2. They are Keven R. Empey, 34, who allegedly supplied false Army identification cards to the others, and Joseph Mendoza, 30, both of Oxnard.

The Navy has notified the other seven men and one woman, all Army veterans, that the charges against them will be dropped today.

“We received good cooperation” from them, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Edward R. Torrence, the special assistant U.S. attorney who is prosecuting the case. “It’s my conclusion that these individuals made a reasonable mistake as to their authorization” to be on the base, Torrence said.

“I don’t have any reason to believe the other two had a reasonable and honestly mistaken belief that they were authorized to wear the uniform and possess an ID card,” he said of Empey and Mendoza.

Empey declined to comment Thursday and Mendoza could not be reached.

Navy officials said they allowed the 10 to enter the base because Empey identified the group as the “U.S. Army Auxiliary Forces,” a reactivated veterans’ unit providing home-front support for the Gulf War.

The 10 entered an empty classroom and quietly studied infantry tactics and Army radio procedures from Korean War-era manuals for three hours. They might have finished their classes unnoticed, but a U.S. postal inspector recognized Empey from an investigative file and notified security guards.

After their arrest, many of the veterans said they felt duped by Empey, who had led them to believe that they were joining a legitimate unit.

But authorities said Empey never served in the military and that the Pentagon did not authorize the group to augment the armed services.

“The whole damn thing was a hoax, and that’s what makes me a little bit sick,” said Leroy Ard, 67, of Ventura, an Army sergeant in World War II who was cleared of all charges after he explained his participation to Torrence.

“That’s a helluva thing, to be thinking you’re doing something for a good cause and then find out you’ve been duped,” Ard said.

Former Army Sgt. Robert J. Crowe, 24, was fired from three jobs in a row when his employers found out that he had been arrested in the breach of military security, his mother, Jann Donaldson, said.

The Navy sent a letter two weeks ago saying it would clear him in the incident, but it was too late. He already had moved to Utah with his wife and children to escape the publicity of his arrest, Donaldson said.

On Wednesday, Crowe faxed a copy of the Navy letter to his mother with a note attached. “Here is a copy of the charges that were dropped and the paper doing so. Please air it so it will be known that I’m innocent like I said. I was a victim and was treated like a criminal. I was forced to leave my home in California because of this,” the note says.

In addition to Ard and Crowe, the Navy dropped charges against Chuck Curtis, 52, of Ventura; William Garner, 54, of Camarillo; B.D. Merril, 67, of Ventura; Haney Pack, 63, of Lompoc; Clifford Roxton, 56, of Santa Barbara, and Richard Waite Sr., 57, of Oxnard.

If convicted, Empey and Mendoza could be sentenced to up to six months in federal prison and fined up to $500.

Mendoza’s role in the incident remains unclear. Authorities would only say that he had not cooperated in their investigation and would have to explain his actions in court.

The U.S. Postal Service is investigating Empey on suspicion of mail fraud regarding the U.S. Army auxiliary forces group, said regional Postal Inspector Donald Obritch. Authorities said Empey contended that he was a military officer in a letter sent to some of the veterans who joined his group and that he falsely claimed that the Pentagon had authorized him to form the group.