Mike and Alec Sou were just boys when their family arrived as refugees from Laos and began farming a small plot of land in Waianae in 1977, pulling out thorny kiawe bushes and rocks to clear the land.

Over the years, Aloun Farms grew to cultivate 3,000 acres across the Ewa Plain, winning a place in the heart of the community with its drive to replace imports with locally grown produce, frequent donations to the needy, and popular "Pumpkin Patch" that drew flocks of children every October.

"I think they were probably the most popular farm," said David Kinoshita, a longtime business associate. "They’re island people. They’ve supported the community."

So when federal indictments came down in 2009 alleging that Alec Sou, president, and his brother Mike, vice president and operations manager, had shortchanged Thai workers and kept them in substandard conditions, the news devastated not just the Sou family and their staff, but also dismayed residents across the island who had a feeling of aloha for the farm and a taste for its sweet corn, cantaloupe and other crops.

After U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway dismissed the entire case Thursday, Alec Sou said it was the support of family, friends, employees and community leaders that sustained them through the ordeal of "unfair, false accusations."

"The fact that Hawaii is a small neighborhood — it’s a big city but it’s a small neighborhood — the local aina, the friends network here has been our core of support," said Sou, 43. "Without that we would have crumbled."

Even so, the pressure was so great that the brothers were ready to reach a plea agreement in hopes of saving the farm, before it was rejected by the judge. "We were under a lot of pressure," Alec Sou said, noting the charges could have meant up to 20 years in prison. "We know we never mistreated anybody, period."

"At the time we hired the Thai workers, there was a labor shortage in Hawaii and we filed all of the required paperwork to bring the workers here," he and his brother said in a joint statement.

"We paid them a fair wage, gave them free housing. Our local workers took them under their wings. In return we have been vilified and unfairly prosecuted. Our business has suffered irreparable damage."

While the American justice system presumes innocence until proved guilty, many observers reached their own conclusions. Some big buyers quickly abandoned Aloun Farms. But local companies were more loyal.

"When this case started in 2009, the mainland big-box stores completely stopped buying our produce," Alec Sou said. "It’s a big sector. And then last year the commissary also did. The military, the government, is a big part of the Hawaii economy."

"The support has been the local supermarkets, the Times, the Foodlands, the Don Quijotes," Sou said. "It ended up being the kamaaina companies, really. They know our family from the times in high school, when Mike and I were delivering produce, knocking on their doors. Those relationships carried through and maintained us in the tough times."

When Aloun and Somphone Sou arrived in Hawaii, they knew little English, so they encouraged their two sons and two daughters to learn the language, enrolling them in public schools in Waianae.

Mike, now 45, says he’s happiest on a tractor, and stayed to work the family farm. Alec transferred to Punahou on a scholarship for his last two years of high school, then got his undergraduate degree at the University of Puget Sound and later an M.B.A. on a full-ride scholarship.

"He could have gone and worked in an air-conditioned job downtown or whatever, but instead he returned to Waianae to help grow the family business," said Thomas Otake, one of his attorneys.

As sugar plantations were faltering in the early 1990s, the Sous developed a business plan to try diversified agriculture on those fields, and made a successful pitch to Campbell Estate, beginning with land in Kunia and eventually on the Ewa Plain.

Alec handles the business side, while Mike handles the field operations, and both of their wives also work at the farm, which employs 180 people.

Despite the nature of the charges, some community leaders stepped forward to support them, including two former governors who submitted letters to the judge. Ben Cayetano said yesterday he vouched for Alec Sou’s character, although he didn’t know the details of the case.

"Everything I knew about Alec was good," Cayetano said. "With me he was always straightforward and honest. Frankly, if he had been convicted of the charges, I would have been shocked because that was not the Alec I knew."

Mike Kajiwara, director of product donations for the Hawaii Foodbank, was at Aloun Farms in Kapolei on Thursday picking up a pallet of honeydew melons and two pallets of cabbage when he heard a meeting of workers erupt in cheers. The news had just come in from the courthouse.

"I walked in the warehouse. They were gathering up for a meeting, and all of a sudden I heard yelling and screaming," Kajiwara said. "All the workers were just jubilant."

Later that day, 75-year-old patriarch Aloun Sou celebrated with employees, many of whom have been with the farm for more than a decade and have grown children now taking on jobs operating machinery and working in the nursery.

Lorenzo Tolentino Puiaoan, a tractor operator who has worked for Aloun for 13 years, said he and his wife couldn’t understand why their bosses were accused of wrongdoing. He recalled how the Sous had supported them, lending them money to help pay for the Puiaoans’ daughters’ training to become nurses.

"We are very glad because they tell us that they won the case," Puiaoan said.

Former Gov. John Waihee said he has always admired the Sous’ compelling family story.

"They did a lot to get the agricultural industry restarted," Waihee said. "I just knew they were exceptionally good people, trying to make a living. This current interest to buy local, which I’m really happy about, would not be possible without families like the Sous who actually went out there and produced local products."