A federal grand jury in Honolulu has indicted Robert "Butchie" Tam Ho, a former supervisor with the Wackenhut security company, for tampering with a witness to an arrest and alleged assault by Tam Ho at the Kahului Arport in 2005.

Tam Ho has pleaded not guilty to the two felony counts, which carry penalties of up to 10 years in prison. He could not be reached for comment.

The former Maui assistant police chief already was being sued in a civil action in 2nd Circuit Court over the same events.

Phil Lowenthal — the Maui lawyer who, with his lawyer son, Ben, is representing the plaintiffs — said Monday, "We didn't even know about the tampering" until the indictment was handed up earlier this month.

However, he said, the grand jury account tracked closely with the narrative given by his clients: Greg Kahlstorf, president of Pacific Wings; Kahlstorf's business partner, Frank Ford; William Goshorn, then a pilot for the airline; and Kahealani Reinhardt, then also an airline employee.

The name of the witness is given in the indictment as "J.W.," a Wackenhut employee.

On Oct. 20, 2005, Kahlstorf had demanded a meeting with Airports Division and Wackenhut managers after one of his pilots was cited and detained by Wackenhut for being in a restricted operating area — an offense Kahlstorf denied.

The airline and the guard company had had uneasy relations since at least February 2004, when Wackenhut guards apparently pressured Pacific Wings to board a passenger who had been turned back by airline security because she did not have acceptable identification.

The grand jury reported that Tam Ho left the meeting after a shouting exchange with Kahlstorf. When he returned with two other Wackenhut employees, they made a "citizen's arrest" and tried to handcuff Kahlstorf for harassment.

Kahlstorf did not cooperate, and he and the two other guards fell to the floor. Tam Ho ordered the other Pacific Wings employees out. They left, but Goshorn came back to witness what was happening to his boss.

Tam Ho "adopted an aggressive fighting stance and struck W.G. about the head and shoulders several times with his fists," according to the grand jury report. Goshorn did not fight back, and others pulled Tam Ho off Goshorn.

Maui police arrived, and Tam Ho demanded that they arrest Goshorn. After an investigation that included an interview with J.W., they did.

Meanwhile, the private guards moved Kahlstorf and Goshorn to the Wackenhut offices, which provides the basis for the civil suit's allegations of kidnapping.

According to the grand jury, J.W. also went to the offices, where Tam Ho told her "she should simply say she was heading home for the day ... and that she didn't see what happened."

Although that was not so, that is what J.W. told police.

The second count refers to the following day, when, the grand jury said, Tam Ho dictated a written statement to J.W., who entered it into a Wackenhut computer.

The jurors said Tam Ho falsely had her write that Goshorn had stopped at the door and did not comply with Tam Ho's request; and that J.W. could not see what was happening but had "observed Tam Ho and him in a scuffle."

Tam Ho tried to get county prosecutors to charge Kahlstorf and Goshorn with resisting arrest or assault, but the prosecutors declined. They also dropped the initial complaint against the pilot for entering a restricted area.