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Court Report

MAN HELD ON $35,000 BAIL IN SEX CASE

 

 A 21-year-old man who admitted to repeatedly having sex with a 15-year-old girl will make his initial appearance in the District Court today.

 

The defendant who has been arrested on an arrest warrant issued yesterday morning is now in the custody of police. Utoaluga Siaea, is facing charges of rape, sodomy, deviate sexual assault, sexual abuse first degree and endangering the welfare of a child.

 

The rape and sodomy counts are class B felonies and are punishable from five to 15 years in jail, deviate sexual assault is a class C felony, which carries a jail term of up to seven years in jail, a fine of up to $5,000 or both, while the sexual abuse count is a class D felony, which carries a jail term of up to five years in jail, a fine of up to $5,000 or both and the child endanger count is a class A misdemeanor which is punishable up to one year in jail, a fine of up to $1,000 or both.

 

According to the government’s case on March 28, 2013 a woman filed a complaint with the Department of Public Safety about the defendant, who was seeing her minor daughter, and Sgt. Vaina Vaofanua, watch commander at the Tafuna West Substation, investigated the case.

 

Court filings say police met with the defendant who admitted picking up the victim on her way to school in the morning and having sex with her on many occasions.

 

According to the government’s case, the victim said she had sex with the defendant numerous times. Court filings also state the defendant admitted to police that he was aware that it’s against the law to have sexual intercourse with young girls.

 

CRIMINAL SUMMONS ISSUED AFTER ASSAULT FOLLOWING FACEBOOK COMMENTS

 

Two criminal summons have been issued in the names of Precious Ghrose and Salelologa Tanielu who have been charged with third degree assault and Public Peace Disturbance stemming from an assault over comments made on the social network, Facebook.

 

According to the government’s case on March 1, 2013 police received a call from the complaining witness, reporting that she was assaulted by her female cousins in front of a shopping center in Nu’uuli.

 

Police arrived at the shopping center and the defendants had already left the scene. Court filings say the victim told police she was coming out of the store when the pair approached her about comments she posted on Facebook.

 

The victim alleges that Tanielu stood between her and Ghrose, who grabbed her arm while Tanielu pushed her to a concrete wall. The victim’s sister interfered and pulled Ghrose’s arm away from the victim, say court filings.

 

The defendant walked away while swearing at the victim and her sister, the court fillings state. It's unclear when these two will make their initial appearance in the District Court.

 

MAN DENIES SEX CHARGES WHEN ARRAIGNED IN HIGH COURT

 

Eti Ponali, who’s facing charges of rape, sodomy, deviate sexual assault and sexual abuse first degree denied the criminal charges against him when he was arraigned in High Court before Associate Justice Lyle L Richmond.

 

The defendant waived his rights to the reading of the criminal charges against him and asked through his lawyer Assistant Public Defender Mike White for a pre-trial conference date after 45 days. The defendant, for which court has denied bail given his immigration status, is accused of having sex with a 15-year-old girl for five minutes.

 

According to the government’s case police met with the father of the 15-year-old girl, who told police that he heard the house phone ring at around 7:30 a.m. and his daughter answered the phone, then his daughter went missing and so he called around looking for her.

 

The father said his daughter came back to the house about an hour later and he saw hickies/love bites on her neck so he questioned her about it. Court filings say a woman from the church told the father that it was the defendant who gave his daughter love bites on her neck, so he then reported the incident to police.  

 

The girl told police that she had sex with the defendant for five minutes. The defendant during questioning from police admitted that he had sexual intercourse with the 15-year-old girl. Pre-trial conference for this case has been scheduled on May 15, 2013.