LOS ANGELES — The owner of a private security firm and his employee have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges they tried board a plane with a gun while escorting a handcuffed inmate to Hawaii, prosecutors said Thursday.

Eric Scott Kindley, the president of Court Services Inc. in Riverside, ordered Gary Douglas Garratt to take a prisoner aboard an ATA Airlines flight and provided his employee with a handgun that was not registered to either men, according to court documents.

Garratt was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport last March after trying to board the flight with a co-worker and the inmate, who was required to appear at a court hearing in Honolulu, authorities said.

Their company was contracted by Hawaii's Department of Public Safety to transport prisoners.

Garratt was not allowed to fly with the inmate because he was not a sworn enforcement officer and had not completed the training required for law enforcement officers to fly with a weapon, prosecutors said. He also did not have a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

Kindley and Garratt were both charged with conspiracy and attempting to carry a firearm on an aircraft. They face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of both counts.

Kindley, 39, of Moreno Valley, was taken into custody Thursday and posted a $5,000 bond, Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Y. Lee said.

An after-hours call to Kindley's attorney, Charles Mullis, was not immediately returned.

Garratt, 54, of Mountain View, was arrested in late November. There was no phone listing for him. He and Kindley were scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday.