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Court Report

IPOD CASE

Police officer Si’ufa’alele Sai and Rockshane Siaki made their initial appearances in the District Court yesterday morning in connection with a stealing case that occurred at the ACE American Industries store.

Siaki is facing a stealing count over an incident which allegedly took place iin November 2010.

Court filings say Siaki and her friend Catherine Michaels went to the store and Siaki allegedly took two iPODS — a blue color one and a silver/white nano iPOD.

According to the government’s case police approached the girls and they surrendered the blue iPOD. The next day they turned up at the Tafuna West Substation and handed the silver and white iPOD to police officers.

According to court filings, Sergeant Solova’a Mageo, who was the watch commander, assigned the case to Officer Sai and he gave her the blue iPOD.

It’s alleged that officer Sai was told by Mageo to fill out a property report and turn it into the Evidence Custodian. The government case claims on a later date Officer Sai informed Sgt. Mageo she was taking an emergency leave to take her mother off Island for medical reasons, and the case was then assigned to Officer Talia Seloti.

Court filings state that Sg.t Mageo gave the nano ipod to Seloti with the instructions to fill out a property report and turn it into the Evidence Custodian. It’s alleged that when Detective Vaina Vaofanua interviewed Officer Sai and Officer Seloti, Officer Sai said she did receive the blue iPOD shuffle and she put it in her locker, however her locker was broken into and it was removed. Officer Seloti confirmed that he had received the nano iPOD from his watch commander, which he took home and did not prepare a property report on it.

Officer Seloti is off island and is yet to be served with the arrest warrant issued in his name.

Bail for Officer Sai was initially set at $10,000 and was reduced to $5,000, while bail for Siaki, initially set at $5,000 was dropped to $2,000. The pair will appear in court tomorrow morning to see if the defendants will have preliminary examination hearings.

Court filings state that the blue iPOD (Shuffle) is valued at $79.99, while the Silver/White (Nano) iPOD is valued at $199 with the total value of the two items at  $278.99.

The defendants are both represented by Assistant Public Defender Donna Clement; prosecuting is Assistant Attorney General Cecilia Reyna.

ASG MOTION TO CONSOLIDATE SEX CASE IS UNDER ADVISEMENT

Associate Justice Lyle L Richmond, who was accompanied on the bench with Associate Judge Mamea Sala Jr., has taken under advisement the government’s motion to consolidate the cases of Mike Kim and Motau Samani.

The two men are implicated in connection with sexual charges involving a minor back in 2010. According to the government’s consolidate motion, combining these two cases will save the court’s time and resources as well as the prosecution’s time.

The motion states that the two defendants are charged for the same offense. Kim, a businessman, is facing among other charges, conspiracy to commit rape, while Samani faces five counts including conspiracy to commit rape.

According to court filings, the alleged incident occurred on June 29, 2010 and the victim involved was a 17-year old girl.

There is a the third defendant in this matter, Police officer Atoe, who is accused of allegedly trying to cover up the alleged sexual incident when he asked the victim’s father to go to the police and withdraw his complaint against Kim.

Atoe is charged with witness tampering and concealing an offense, and his case is also pending in the High Court.

Deputy Attorney General Mitzie Jessop Folau is prosecuting; Fiti Sunia is representing Kim; and, Public Defender Ruth Risch Fuatagavi represents Samani.