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Man from Samoa accused of rape and sexual abuse of 15-year-old girl

American Samoa District Court building
ausage@samoanews.com

ago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A 37-year-old man from Samoa accused of having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old female for a period of 3 months is now in custody after he was arrested by police last week pursuant to an arrest warrant from the court.

The defendant made his initial appearance in District Court last week where he waived his rights to a preliminary examination.

He is charged with one count of rape and two counts of sodomy, both class B felonies, punishable by imprisonment of not less than five years and not more than fifteen years; and one count of 1st degree sexual abuse, a class D felony, punishable by imprisonment of up to 5 years, a fine of up to $5,000 or both.

Bail is set at $35,000.

If he posts bond, the defendant is ordered to obey standard bond restrictions, including not making any direct or indirect contact with the government’s witnesses, including the victim and her family.

The court make it clear to the defendant that “no direct” means, no phone calls nor Facebook messages at all.

He is scheduled to appear in High Court this morning at 9a.m for his arraignment where he’s expected to enter a not guilty plea to the charges against him.

(Samoa News has decided to not identify the defendant to protect the 15-year-old victim.)

THE CASE

The government claims that it was on the early morning of May 24th, 2020 when a man walked into the Tafuna Police Substation (TPS) with his daughter to report an alleged sexual incident involving his daughter and a another man. The man and girl were later identified as the 15-year-old victim and her father.

Investigators interviewed the victim and her father.

According to the victim’s father’s statement to investigators, he only became aware of the alleged incident after he discovered that his daughter was missing from their home on the early morning of May 24.

He investigated the matter and discovered text messages on his daughter’s cell phone from a man named the defendant. It appeared from the text messages between the victim and the defendant that something had been happening between them for over a period of 3 months — they had been engaged in a sexual relationship since January of this year.

Investigators interviewed the victim and she told police she met the defendant at a volleyball game around January of this year when he became friendly with her.

The victim and the defendant continued to meet up at the volleyball court every day during volleyball games and developed a close friendship.

The defendant asked the victim for her phone number so that he could call her at night. The second week into their friendship, the victim and the defendant began talking through text messages utilizing Facebook and the friendship kept getting closer and closer.

One month after the victim and the defendant met, the defendant asked the victim if she could come to his house at night to hang around with him. The victim refused but the defendant kept asking her to please come to his house so that they could talk face to face. The victim finally agreed and went to the defendant’s house at night the last part of February, without informing her parents of her whereabouts.

It was during that first visit to the defendant’s home late at night when the first alleged rape occurred — the victim did not consent to a sexual relationship.

The victim told investigators that when she entered the defendant’s house, he told her to come with him inside his room where they talked for a few minutes before the defendant asked her if they could have sex.

The victim refused the defendant’s request and told him that she had never had sex in her entire life and she also didn’t want to do it because she was young and in school.

The victim’s refusal of the defendant’s request for sex did not sit well with the defendant. He grabbed the victim by her hand and pulled her close to him and started kissing her and sexually touched her before he raped her.

The victim told investigators that she tried hard to push the defendant away from her but the defendant was too strong for her. While he raped her, the victim put his right hand over the victim’s mouth to stop her from yelling out.

According to the victim’s statement to investigators, they had sexual intercourse more than 20 times between March and May of this year. She further stated that sexual intercourse with the defendant would last 15-20 minutes most times and they would have sex 2 to 3 times a day when they meet up at the defendant’s home.

This continued until the morning of May 24th when the victim’s father discovered that his daughter was missing from home.

The victim was taken by Child Protective Services for an assessment at the LBJ Medical Hospital and later released to her parents.

The defendant was apprehended at his home on the same day and was transported to the TPS for questioning. He first confessed and admitted to the allegation against him. He told investigators that he knew the victim was a minor, however, his desire for a relationship did not stop him from committing this crime.

He denied the allegation that he raped the victim inside his room on the first night of their sexual relationship. The defendant told investigators that it was consensual. He also admitted sending text messages to the victim through his Facebook account.

The defendant also admitted that it was he who asked the victim to come to his place on the night of the first alleged incident.