A contract worker at Raleigh-Durham International Airport was arrested last month after officers said he illegally used his security badge to help a Delta Air Lines passenger slip around the federal security checkpoint.

RDU airport police charged Jonathan C. Gregg, 37, of Garner with disorderly conduct.

"A friend of his was traveling out, and he offered to take [her] onto the concourse, bypassing security," airport spokeswoman Mindy Hamlin said. "When they stepped onto the concourse, a [Transportation Security Administration] officer saw them immediately and notified an RDU law enforcement officer."

The passenger, Amy Farrar Farmer, 31, of Apex was charged with second-degree trespassing. The charges against Gregg and Farmer are misdemeanors.

The incident was not regarded as a security threat, and other travelers were not affected, Hamlin said.

Farmer had been waiting in the security line at Terminal 2 to catch a 6 a.m. Delta flight to New Orleans. Hamlin and Jonathan Allen, a TSA spokesman , said Gregg escorted her onto the passenger concourse by using his badge to open a door into a secure area where the public is not allowed to enter. TSA agents screened Farmer after officers arrested her, and she was not carrying anything illegal, Allen said.

The two were not detained, and Farmer caught a later flight. Gregg was employed by ServiceTec International, an airport technology subcontractor, to maintain video displays and other technology in Terminal 2. He was stripped of his badge, escorted from the property and will not be allowed to return to work at RDU, Hamlin said.

"There was no ill intention here," she said. "It was just a bad choice, choosing not to follow the process, and that's very serious."