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Court issues bench warrant after drug defendant fails to appear

American Samoa High Court building
ausage@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A man who was released on bond awaiting the outcome of his matter in High Court where he’s charged with violating local drugs is now back in custody after he was arrested last week pursuant to a bench warrant from the court. Doug Logo appeared in court last week for his initial appearance.

According to the court, one of the conditions of release for Logo was to make all of his court appearances. Logo failed to appear in court last month for his pretrial conference. As a result, the court issued a bench warrant for his arrest. Logo was served with a copy of the bench warrant at the District Court when he went to visit the Probation Office last month. He was immediately taken into custody to await his initial appearance last week.

The defense attorney informed the court that he’s also aware that there is a pending motion to revoke bond against his client before the court. He then asked to set a hearing date for last week. However, the hearing was set for next week.

The court stated that the reason why the court issued the bench warrant was that the court couldn’t find the defendant.

Logo was remanded back into custody.

BACKGROUND

Logo is charged with one count each of illegal possession of marijuana and illegal possession of methamphetamine (meth), both felonies. Bail was set at $10,000.

The charges against Logo stem from an incident when a police officer followed a truck driven by the defendant on Feb. 8, 2020 and he met up with him in the parking lot of a store in Aua village.

The police officer had noticed that the sticker on the truck was not current. When asked for his driver’s license, Logo told the police officer that he had forgotten his driver’s license at home and he didn’t have any money to renew his insurance and registration.

An inventory of the vehicle was then carried out, in Logo’s presence. Police discovered a large plastic ziplock bag which held a glass pipe commonly used to smoke meth, with a useable amount of white crystalline substance inside. Also found were two stamp-sized plastic baggies containing a 'white crystalline substance' that appeared to be meth. In addition, a "neatly folded newspaper" with what appeared to be 'dried marijuana leaves' was found.