The attorney for a man accused of binding the hands of a teenage girl on a Southwest Airlines flight and trying to do the same to her sister said it was merely "horseplay" and pointed out that the girls didn't scream.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Kristen Mix said Friday there was enough evidence to move forward with charges against 29-year-old Ezra Wallace. He faces two counts of assault.

In a written statement, Wallace said he had been drinking and "never harmed anybody or had any bad intentions."

Wallace and the two sisters, ages 9 and 16, were seated in the same row on a San Diego-to-Denver flight Aug. 1. Officials said Wallace did not know the girls or their brother, 10, who was seated behind them. The siblings were traveling without a parent.

In a preliminary hearing, FBI agent Joel Nishida said Wallace tried to take pictures of the younger sister, seated near the aisle, but that she covered her face.

During the flight, the older sister said Wallace took out some strips of white athletic tape from his backpack and used a figure eight pattern to tie her hands together with the tape.

When she asked him what he was doing, "he gave out a creepy laugh," Nishida testified.

The younger sister managed to free her sister, tearing the tape off using her teeth. Afterward, Wallace allegedly tried to tape the younger sister's hands to those of her older sibling. A flight attendant who saw what was happening then moved the two girls to a different row with their brother.

During cross-examination by defense attorney Brian Leedy, Nishida acknowledged that there was no commotion and that other passengers did not react, and he noted that the flight attendant who moved the girls said only that he felt what they were doing was not appropriate. Continued...