2 charged with witness tampering

PALMER -- A Knik-area man and his girlfriend have been indicted by a Palmer grand jury for urging his mother to lie in a pending court case involving the girlfriend.

Paul D. Holmes, 46, and Margaretta M. Kosidowski, 40, are charged with first-degree tampering with a witness -- a class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

They are accused of asking Ann M. Reddish of Wasilla to lie about a gun found in the couple's home at Mile 16.9 Knik-Goose Bay Road. A loaded .357-magnum revolver was found between the mattresses of the couple's bed during a routine search by Kosidowski's probation officer on May 21, according to charging documents.

Having a gun violated terms of Kosidowski's probation on a previous charge of hindering prosecution in the first degree, according to court papers.

Alaska State Trooper Ron Hayes was present during the search of the home in May. He also investigated allegations of witness tampering after Reddish called the Palmer District Attorney's office June 4 to report the alleged offense.

When arrested for probation violation in May, Kosidowski said she didn't know the gun was in the house, Hayes said in an affidavit. Holmes said he had recently gotten the gun back from his mother, Hayes said.

Reddish lived next door to the couple until January, when she moved to Wasilla, Hayes said. On June 2, Holmes and Kosidowski went to her house and asked if she would testify to possessing the gun found in their residence, the affidavit said.

Reddish told them she wouldn't lie about the gun, Hayes said. When the trooper interviewed Reddish, she said she owned the gun for several years but gave it to Holmes when she moved to Wasilla and he has had it since then, Hayes said.