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Court Report

Translated by Samoa News staff

MICHAEL AGASIVA

Following a hearing last Friday, in which three  Public Safety Department officials testified after being subpoenaed, District Court Judge Fiti A. Sunia ordered the release from the Territorial Correctional Facility a man, who had refused to twice appear in court.

The man in question is Michael Agasiva, who was taken into custody two weeks ago while the government worked on finalizing charges against him. It’s not clear yet as to why Agasiva was taken into custody and what the charges were against him.

TCF officials told Samoa News last Friday that Agasiva had been released from jail for some time now after he served the required jail time after being sentenced in 2011 for assaulting another person in 2009.

In the new case, Agasiva was taken into custody, but he had refused to appear in court twice for his hearing, prompting Sunia to issue subpoenas for three TCF officials, who appeared in court last Friday morning, for failing to bring Agasiva to the hearings — including one last Thursday morning.

TCF officials who appeared in court were deputy police commissioner Vaimaga Maiava, TCF warden Commander Foifua Foifua and the police officer, who was responsible for arresting Agasiva and bringing him to court.

The court heard statements from the three officials, while Sunia told them that the court depends on DPS to carry out its duties in order for the justice system to move forward with cases. And if DPS fails, that means there is a delay in the court carrying out its mandate as outlined in the constitution, he says.

At the conclusion of the hearing, Sunia ordered that Agasiva be released from TCF, while the government and the court start all over again the process of filing charges against Agasiva as well as a new arrest warrant to be issued by the court once the government has filed the charges.

As of last Friday afternoon, Agasiva was released from jail while the government works on filing charges sometime this week.

TONY LEATUALEVAO

With both sides unable to reach a plea agreement in the case of an elementary school teacher accused of striking one of his students, the High Court has now moved forward with a jury trial later this year. The court has to check with the Clerk of the Court for the jury trial date and inform attorneys for both sides.

Tony Leatualevao, who is charged with child abuse and endangering the welfare of a child, appeared last Friday in High Court for his pre trial conference hearing. And attorneys for both sides informed the court that they weren’t able to reach a plea agreement and therefore the defense requests to move forward with a jury trial.

While the motion for trial was granted, Chief Justice Michael Kruse cautioned both sides of previous practices in which a plea agreement is all of sudden reached one week or a few days before trial. Kruse says the court is displeased with this type of practice that continues to happen over and over again.

The charges against the defendant stem from a Nov. 2 incident where Leatualevao ordered the 11-year old victim, a student, to stand in front of the class and then the teacher struck his buttocks with a wooden paddle, the court filings say.

The student further stated that Leatualevao struck him five times on his buttocks. The student explained that the pain was almost unbearable and that he could barely sit down during class time. The mother filed a complaint against the teacher on Nov. 3. Leatualevao is out on bail.

As previously reported by Samoa News, at the outset of the case, Leatualevao was also charged with first-degree assault, which was later dismissed by the District Court during a preliminary examination hearing in mid November last year due to lack of evidence.

Original Samoan stories in today’s Lali section of Samoa News and on online weekend.