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Alleged sex abuse case is most disturbing to come to light yet

American Samoa High Court building
It involves a brother and his two little sisters
reporters@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA  — Police arrested an 18-year-old young man last week accused of sexually abusing his two younger sisters and he’s now being charged. The two victims are aged 10 and 15, and both lived in the same house with the suspect during the time of the alleged offenses.

According to the government’s case, the defendant and the two victims’ parents have been separated for over 3 years.

To protect the identity of the victims, Samoa News is withholding the names of all parties involved.

The alleged case of multiple sex charges was reported to authorities by a representative from the Child Protective Service (CPS) on March 19, 2020 and it was determined that the victims and the accused were sisters and brother. It was also reported that the victims had been removed from their home and placed at the CPS shelter.

The suspect is mentioned by name in the court affidavit while the victims are only named with their initials.

Almost two months after the alleged assault matter was reported to authorities, two police detectives visited the CPS shelter on Apr. 5, 2020 in an effort to interview the victims. The victim, who was named as N.F in the court affidavit was advised not to be afraid to speak and police officers were only there to help her in regard to what happened.

The victim stated that she was sleeping in the living room when her brother (suspect) walked over to where she was sleeping, pulled her shorts down and allegedly touched her in a sexual manner. He also got on top of her.

According to the victim’s statement, her 15-year-old sister (D.F), who is the second victim walked inside the room and the suspect immediately covered them with a sheet. D.F removed the sheet and saw the victim had no clothes on. D.F yelled at the suspect and told him to get away.

The victim told investigators that she was hurting and she was embarrassed to look at her brother (suspect).

In her statement to investigators, the victim remembered one night where the suspect pretended to be asleep, D.F then went to her room to sleep. The victim was moving around in her sleep and she felt the suspect taking the sheets off of her, and shorts off and he lay on top of her.

According to the victim’s statement, the suspect continued to sexually abuse her throughout the whole night by touching her body in a sexual manner. The suspect also told the victim that he only wanted to do these things at night.

On the next morning, the victim told everything to her sister and her sister told what happened to her father.

The victim was crying while making her statement to investigators pertaining to the incident. When her statement concluded, the victim asked investigators if her brother would be locked up and investigators told her that they didn’t know, but would forward their report upon completion of the investigation.

Investigators also interviewed the victim’s 15-year-old sister at the CPS shelter regarding the alleged incident.

According to her statement to investigators, it was around 11p.m on May 17, 2020 when she walked home from a friend’s house and upon entering saw her sister (N.F) and her brother (suspect) sleeping on the living room floor. The suspect quickly pulled the sheets off of N.F and saw that she was naked.

She asked the suspect, “O le a lau mea ua fai i le keige?” (What did you do to the girl?). The suspect put his finger on his lips in indication of ‘do not make a sound’. The 15-year-old sister turned to the victim and told her to go in the bedroom.

The 15-year-old victim, who is named in the court affidavit as D.F, further stated that on the following night, March 18, the suspect came into her room while she was sleeping and allegedly touched her body in a sexual manner. She woke up and yelled at the suspect but the suspect told her that he was looking for their father’s cell phone that the victim had used.

D.F messaged her mom who is in Texas and reported what allegedly happened. On the following day, Social Services came over to their house and talked with her Dad, and later placed them at the shelter.

The mother called her aunt who is in American Samoa for assistance. The aunt quickly reported the alleged incident to Social Services.

On the following day, Social Services personnel came over to the victims’ house and discussed the matter with their father and later placed both victims at the Shelter for protection.

D.F provided a written statement to investigators regarding the alleged incident.

D.F was in tears while making her statement. She was also concerned about the suspect and the aftermath of this case. She stated to investigators that the suspect no longer stays with her father and that he had moved to a village on the far eastern side of the island.

Three months later on June 19th, investigators interviewed the father of the three children regarding the alleged incident.

The father told investigators that the suspect is the eldest of seven children. He and his wife have been separated for three years and his wife is currently residing off island. He stated that he’s been taking care of his children ever since the separation from his wife and the suspect is the most complicated child.

The father recalled one day when D.F reported to him that she found porn on his cell phone that was always being used by the suspect.

According to the father, his youngest daughter, N.F mostly sleeps with him in the living room. When asked about what N.F wears in bed, he replied that she is always in just her panties, because it is hot in their house. Sometimes, according to the father, N.F sleeps with D.F but mostly with him and three other sons who are younger than the suspect.

A few days after the father was interviewed, investigators proceeded to the suspect’s new residence and were able to meet up with the suspect and his aunt and her family.

Before the suspect was interviewed, he asked investigators if his aunt could step out. The aunt agreed and told investigators to let her know if they needed anything.

The suspect was in tears while making his statement. He told investigators that he did everything bad to his little sisters. He admitted that he touched the victims in a sexual manner. He told investigators that he had sex with his sister N.F and was caught by his other sister D.F. He added that he was sorry about what he did and he misses his sisters.

Investigators also received a copy of the Medical Assessment report conducted by the Sexual Assault Forensic Exam at the LBJ Hospital.

The defendant made his initial appearance in District Court this week where he waived his rights to a preliminary examination (PX) and asked for the matter to be bound over to the High Court for further proceedings.

The defendant is charged with child molesting, rape, sexual assault, sexual abuse in the first degree and incest, all felonies.

Bail is set at $50,000.

The defendant appeared in High Court yesterday morning where he entered a not guilty plea to all the charges against him.

Pretrial conference is scheduled for next month.