Sentencing in food stamp fraud case continued to end of June
Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — District Court Judge Fiti Sunia has granted a motion to continue the sentences of one of the defendants, Jane Vasa, from the Department of Human and Social Services (DHSS) food stamp program scheme case to June 29th, to await the Pre Sentence Report (PSR) from the Probation Office.
Vasa convicted by the court for misdemeanor stealing in April of this year, appeared before the court last Friday for sentencing. However, her attorney, Assistant Public Defender Ryan Anderson informed the court that they still haven’t received the copy of the PSR, and immediately asked for another continuance.
In granting the motion, Judge Sunia explained to Vasa that the court does not need a PSR when dealing with sentencing in all misdemeanor cases that come before the court. However, the court had asked the Probation Office to prepare a PSR for her case, because of the serious circumstances surrounding her case.
Vasa, who is not confined after she was ordered by Judge Sunia last April to be released on her own recognizance, is scheduled to appeared in court on June 29th at 9a.m for sentencing.
Sunia reminded the defendant to continue compliance with conditions of her release, including that she not leave or attempt to leave the territory, and she must appear in court whenever her case is called.
The other two defendants in this case, Vincent Toeava and Liren Zhang a.k.a. Kevin both appeared in High Court last week for their pretrial conferences hearing (PTC).
Toeava’s PTC hearing is now continued to next month, after his attorney David Vargas informed that court that they had received only part of the discovery from the government, while Kevin’s hearing is continued to June 22nd to finalize negotiations with the government.
When Kevin appeared in High Court last Friday, his attorney, William Olson informed the court that they have received discovery from the government. He then asked for a two weeks continuance so that they would have time to review the discovery and to see what motions that they will need to file.
Toeava is facing 19 criminal counts while Kevin is facing 17 criminal counts. Both are still in custody unable to post their $450,000 surety bond each.