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36-year-old man charged with the rape of a 14-year-old girl

American Samoa District Court building
ausage@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A 36-year-old man was arrested and has been charged with the rape on several occasions of a 14-year-old girl beginning in 2018.

The man made his initial appearance in Court last week where he requested a preliminary examination (PX).

(While his name is in court documents, Samoa News has chosen not to identify him due the age of the victim.)

He is charged with 5 counts of rape, a class B felony punishable by a term of imprisonment of not less than five nor more than fifteen years.

Bail is set at $50,000.

If he posts bond, he is ordered not to have any direct or indirect contact with the victim or her family and to peacefully withdraw whenever he encounters them in public.

PX is set for this Friday, Aug. 14th, 2020 at 1:30 p.m.

THE CASE

According to the government’s case, the matter was reported to police by the victim’s father who claimed that the defendant had a sexual relationship with his daughter in 2018 and 2019. The sexual relationship between the defendant and the victim began during Sunday school classes at church in 2018.

The lead investigator in this matter met with the victim’s father, the victim and the victim’s newborn baby.

It’s not clear if the baby’s father is the defendant. The court filings don’t mention why the complaint against the defendant was made two years after the alleged offenses.

According to the government’s case, the defendant would make inappropriate conversations with the victim, give her money on occasion and continue to make contact with the victim during church functions and village activities.

The victim explained that she ended up having sexing intercourse with the defendant for the first time while she was at her late grandmother’s funeral on Oct. 5, 2018.

On Oct. 5, the victim and her father left school early to attend her grandmother’s funeral and while she was there, she left the funeral to go for a walk due to emotional distress. And while she was walking, she was approached by the defendant, who was driving an off-white sedan. The defendant asked her to get into the car so they could go for a ride.

The defendant allegedly took the victim to his house. The victim refused to enter the defendant’s house, however, according to the government’s case, the defendant grabbed the victim’s hands and led her into his house. The defendant then instructed the victim to sit on a bed in a bedroom while he went to grab water for them.

After spending time together at the defendant’s house, the two had sex at the house before the defendant dropped the victim off at her grandmother’s funeral.

After that day, the defendant continued to have contact with the victim and the victim asked the defendant to come pick her up at elementary school during lunch the following Monday after the funeral.

On Monday after the funeral, the defendant showed up at the elementary school in his truck to pick up the victim. The defendant drove the victim to a secluded location in the village of Petesa where he had sexual intercourse with her. The defendant dropped the victim back to the school afterwards.

On the following day, Tuesday, then Wednesday and Thursday on the same week, the defendant went to the victim’s school to pick her up and drove her to the same location to have sexual intercourse with her in his vehicle.

On Friday of the same week, the defendant went back to the victim’s school to pick her up, however, the victim did not go out to meet him, instead chose to play soccer.

On July 30th, 2020, the defendant was picked up by police officers and was transported to the Fagatogo Central Station for questioning. After reading his constitutional rights, the defendant said that he understood his rights and agreed to make a statement.

The defendant immediately apologized to investigators for his actions and admits that he had sexual intercourse with the victim two times in his truck in the village of Petesa after picking her up during lunch time at her elementary school.

The defendant further stated that he knew the victim was too young to have sex with but claimed that the victim was cheeky and had sex with others.