Pilot Linked to Alcohol Influenced Abuse

July 2 -- An America West pilot charged Monday with trying to fly a jetliner while drunk was arrested two years ago for verbally abusing a neighbor and admitted to "drinking a lot."

Thomas Porter Cloyd, 44, was charged earlier this week, before taking off on his scheduled Miami to Phoenix flight, with operating an aircraft under the influence and operating a motor vehicle under the influence. Tests found his blood-alcohol level above the legal limit of .08.

His 41-year-old co-pilot Christopher Hughes, who faces the same charges, initially told police it was "merely mouthwash," according to police. The men were released on $7,000 bond each. Arraignments are scheduled for July 22.

According to police reports obtained by ABCNEWS, Cloyd pleaded guilty in 2000 to charges of disorderly conduct for shouting obscenities at a neighbor, pounding on her door and stomping on his floor, records show.

The police report said: "At times, Cloyd continued to yell at me instead of listening to the answer of a lot of the questions he had asked me. Cloyd admitted to drinking a lot."

Cloyd was also arrested and charged with domestic abuse in 1998. According to police reports , Cloyd's then-wife Debbie told authorities that Cloyd came home drunk and "physically assaulted" her. Cloyd told police his wife also had assaulted him.

The police officer who filed the report wrote: "I could smell a faint odor of an alcoholic beverage from his face." But Cloyd denied he had been drinking that day.

Prosecutors dropped the domestic assault charge after Cloyd took an anger-management class, Carla Boatner, administrator for Chandler Municipal Court, told The Associated Press.

An America West spokesman said he was not sure if the airline knew about Cloyd's past problems. "What I can tell you is that these individuals had a clean record. We have no prior disciplinary actions or findings against either of these two pilots in this regard," said Jim Sabourin, the Phoenix-based airline's vice president of corporate communications.