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Fisherman who assaulted his wife gets 10 days at TCF

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ausage@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A man who was convicted by the District Court for assaulting his wife has been ordered to spend 10 days at the Territorial Correctional Facility (TCF) as a condition of a 12-month probation term.

The detention period will see the defendant spending 5 straight weekends at the TCF.

(To protect the identity of the victim, Samoa News is withholding the defendant's name).

The defendant is a 45-year-old fisherman from Samoa who lives in Tafuna with his wife and four young children. Under a plea agreement with the government, he pled guilty to third degree assault, and the remaining charges were dismissed.

But he is not new to the system. Back in 2011 he was convicted of private peace disturbance for the same thing: assaulting his wife. Again in 2014, he was convicted of third degree assault.

During sentencing, the defendant apologized to the court and begged for another chance to return home. According to him, he and his wife are still living together, despite what happened.

He told the court that ever since the incident last March, he hasn't been drinking or hanging out with his usual crowd.

Conditions of probation include not threatening or harming his wife and children at any time, and he is to remain sober at all times.

He has to continue to work to provide for his family, and he must visit the Probation Office once a month.

The defendant’s conviction stems from an incident whereby he came home after work very intoxicated and got into an argument with his wife over financial issues. He ended up assaulting his wife by pulling her hair and choking her while she was carrying their 1-year-old daughter.

A neighbor who heard the wife and her son screaming for help called police for assistance, which resulted in the defendant being arrested and charged.