Firm Cleared in 7 Marines’ Death in War : Settlement: The O.C. widow of one of those killed is angry that the aerospace company was found not responsible.

An aerospace company has been cleared of causing the deaths of a U.S. Marine from San Juan Capistrano and six others in a friendly fire incident during the Persian Gulf War, but has admitted falsifying test results for defective missile launcher parts, according to a plea bargain filed Monday in federal district court.

Seven Camp Pendleton Marines, including 23-year-old Cpl. Stephen E. Bentzlin, died in January, 1991, in the first land battle of Desert Storm when their lightly armored vehicle was hit by a missile fired from an Air Force A-10. The deadly incident came as Bentzlin’s unit was involved in the battle for Khafji, a northern Saudi Arabian border town seized by Iraqi troops.

In the settlement, the company, Lucas Aul, of Garden City, N.Y., a subsidiary of the multibillion-dollar British-owned defense contractor Lucas Industries, was cleared of those deaths.

But the company pleaded guilty to a felony charge of deliberately submitting the falsified results and agreed to pay the government $4 million in fines, $7.5 million in restitution for the faulty parts and $500,000 in reimbursement for the federal investigation.

In its plea, Lucas acknowledged that employees had falsified test results indicating that the parts--launch electronic units--had passed vibration, severe weather and current-flow tests, according to the office of Zachary Carter, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York. The units, which help pilots fire missiles, were manufactured under a $54-million, classified government contract.

In addition, government inspections of the 4,390 units manufactured by Lucas showed some had “incomplete and defective soldering, broken resistors and the presence of foreign objects” contaminating surfaces, according to the plea agreement filed by Justice Department attorney Michael Cornacchia and Defense Department attorney Jane Blumenthal-Stechman.

“The investigation,” however, “revealed that the launcher electronic units that Lucas manufactured . . . were not responsible for the deaths or injuries to any members of the United States armed services,” said the plea, which was based on a two-year investigation by the Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations.

Bentzlin’s widow was not pleased with the news Monday.

“The government would find that, because if they didn’t, somebody would be responsible,” Carol Bentzlin said from her home in San Juan Capistrano. “Nobody’s ever held responsible for friendly fire. The fact remains that they sent shoddy equipment over there, and now the government is going to get money for that.”

Bentzlin said she was not surprised by the agreement, which she said sends a message that the lives lost on the battlefield, including her husband’s, are “totally expendable.”

“It’s reprehensible that happened because no one is held accountable,” she said.