HONOLULU -- A U.S. bankruptcy court judge ruled Thursday that a Mesa Air Group executive wrongfully deleted confidential evidence on Hawaiian Airlines before launching go! Airlines.

Judge Robert Faris did not, however, decide on damages. Hawaiian is seeking $173 million in damages in its lawsuit against Phoenix-based Mesa.

Mesa argued that the confidential material was accidentally erased by its chief financial officer -- Peter Murnane -- as he was purging pornographic material from his computers.

"The judge didn't buy Mesa's pornography defense and saidMernane destroyed evidence and then tried to cover it up," said Mark Dunkerly, an attorney with Hawaiian Airlines.

The judge found that the company should be held responsible at least in part for their CFO's actions.

Hawaiian alleged that Murnane destroyed evidence, including Hawaiian's business plan, which could show Mesa misused confidential information to launch interisland carrier go!. Mesa put Murnane on administrative leave last week.

Hawaiian contended that Mesa violated a confidentiality agreement by using proprietary information it gathered as a potential investor during Hawaiian's bankruptcy.

Mesa attorneys said they weren't worried about the case and were confident they would win in court.

"We are comfortable that at the end of the day he is going to find out they gave us nothing that was confidential. We will show that it was not something we couldn't find in the public domain and therefore we will win," said Max Blecher, a Mesa Airlines attorney.

All week Aloha Airlines has also been closely monitoring the case -- it has a similar suit pending against Mesa.