Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Two men were arrested during a family quarrel, which evolved into an alleged public peace disturbance (PPD) in Ottoville between a father-in-law and his stepdaughter’s husband last month.

While both are being charged for PPD, separately, each also have serious additional charges against them — one for alleged illegal drug possession; and the other for alleged sexual abuse.

The men are Filipo Afaese and his wife’s stepfather, Taufiti Filituna

Afaese is charged with two counts of 1st degree sexual abuse and two counts of sodomy, all felonies; along with one count of endangering the welfare of a child, a class A misdemeanor.

Filituna is charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine (meth) and one count of stealing, both felonies, along with one count of 3rd degree assault, one count of endangering of the welfare of a child and one count of private peace disturbance, all misdemeanors.

Afese’s bail is set at $15,000, while Filituna’s bail is $10,000.

THE CASE

The government alleges that on July 12th, 2021 around 6p.m, the Tafuna Police Substation (TPS) received a phone call from a man requesting police assistance at his home in Ottoville. The man, who was later identified as Filipo Afaese, one of the two defendants in this case, told police that his father-in-law came to his house and assaulted him while he was holding his two-year-old son.

(For clarity, Samoa News should point out that Filituna refers to himself as an uncle, Afaese’s wife as his niece, while the police report notes Afaese as an uncle, step-father and father-in-law.)

Several police officers responded to the call and met up with Afaese, who was standing on the side of the road in Ottoville. He identified himself to police as the one who requested police assistance.

Afaese showed police his injuries and after officers observed blood coming from his left eye and nose, they immediately called EMS for assistance.

When questioned about what happened, Afaese told police that the ‘uncle’ beat him up inside the house while he was holding his son. According to Afaese, he came home after work around 4:30p.m. and was drinking his beer at the back of the house while his wife and children were doing the cooking inside the house.

Around 6:00p.m, his wife called him for dinner and they were eating dinner at the table while listening to music. There were times during dinner that he stood up and danced around the house, which made his wife and four young children laugh. He stated to police that he always did that in front of his family whenever he drank and it’s his way of showing his love and appreciation to his wife for the work she and their children do while he’s away from home, working.

However, the wife’s stepfather (Filituna) was annoyed and yelled at him from outside the house to stop what he was doing and go to sleep before he does something bad to him.

Afaese told police that Filituna is his wife’s stepfather, who lives with his wife and three daughters at another house next to Filituna’s house.

Afaese did not mind Filituna’s harassment but continued to entertain his wife and children by dancing in the middle of the house. Filituna called out to Afaese a second time and instructed him (Afaese) to turn off his music and go to sleep. This got Afaese mad and he started kicking stuff around in the house and making unreasonable noises causing alarm to his neighbor.

Afaese yelled out to Filituna that he has no business trying to control his family nor is he the sa’o of the family. After a few moments, Afaese went back to the dinner table and continued eating his dinner.

Out of nowhere, while Afaese was eating, he was shocked when Filituna assaulted him, causing Afaese to fall to the floor. While lying on the floor, Filituna kicked Afaese in the back several times before he (Filituna) grabbed a broom handle and struck Afaese on the head.

Afaese was taken to the LBJ Medical Hospital for treatment after which he was interviewed by officers at his house.

Filituna was later transported to TPS for questioning. While Filituna was being transported to the TPS, officers smelled a strong odor of alcohol coming from his breath.

When they arrived at the TPS, Filituna refused to enter the police station. He told officers that what he did to his stepdaughter’s husband was right because the man (Afaese) allegedly sexually abused his 16-year-old niece (Filituna’s daughter) last year and that incident did not sit well with him.

Filituna tried to walk away from police, but he was stopped by two other police officers. However, he resisted arrest and continued walking away. He also told police that he wanted to file a criminal complaint against his stepdaughter’s husband for sexually abusing his niece, who is a minor.

Trying to stop Filituna, one officer grabbed on to Filituna’s pants and felt something hard in his rear pocket. He was immediately patted down for weapons, but instead officers discovered a glass pipe containing white crystalline substance in his left rear pocket. The search continued to the front pants pocket where officers found a small stamp size baggie containing green leafy substance.

Filituna was immediately arrested and escorted inside the TPS conference room for questioning.

After being Mirandized, Filituna stated to officers that he understood his rights and wished to make a statement about what happened between him and his niece’s husband.

According to Filituna, he loves his niece and her family very much and he treats her, her husband and children like his own children. But ever since the alleged incident happened between Afaese and his 16-year-old niece  at the beginning of last year, where Afaese allegedly entered his house late at night and sexually abused his daughter while she was sleeping inside the living room, everything has changed between him and Afaese and the only thing he wanted was revenge.

Filituna admitted assaulting Afaese, as described by Afaese, and when asked about the illegal drugs found in his possession, Filituna admitted that the illegal drugs belonged to him and he bought it from another man to use for his own personal use.

After the interview, Filituna told investigators that he wanted to file a complaint against Afaese for the alleged sexual abuse against his niece. Police interviewed Filituna’s niece, who confirmed the alleged incident.

Afaaese was brought to the TPS for questioning regarding the alleged sexual abuse complaint and investigators also interviewed the victim regarding the incident.

THE ALLEGED SEXUAL ABUSE CASE

According to the victim, it was on the night of Jan. 25, 2020 while she was sleeping on the couch in the living room when she felt someone touching her inappropriately. She woke up and saw her brother-in-law (Afaese) standing beside the couch touching her.

According to the victim, she didn’t want to yell because Afaese would get into trouble if her father knew about what he did, so she quietly told him to get out of the house. Afaese complied and left the house.

Two days after the first incident, Afaese again entered the victim’s house late at night and again allegedly touched her inappropriately while the victim was sleeping on the couch in the living room. This time, according to the victim’s statement to investigators, Afaese went too far.

The victim said she woke up when she felt pain and saw Afaese sitting beside the couch. She further noticed that her clothes were all removed and she was lying naked on the couch. She then yelled at Afaese to get out of the house.

The next morning, she informed her mother about what happened and her parents called a family meeting with Afaese and his wife — where Afaese apologized about what had happened and promised that he would not do it again.

When questioned by investigators, Afaese admitted to the allegation and immediately apologized for his actions. He told investigators however that the victim invited him to come into the house.