Ads by Google Ads by Google

In court: Two DPS officers accused of sexually harassing female cops

One has resigned, the other retired from Dept. of Public Safety
ausage@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The two former DPS police officers accused of sexually harassing two female cops each made their initial appearance before District Court Judge Fiti Sunia last Friday, where their attorneys announced their not guilty pleas to the single charge against them.

Private Counsel Marcellus T. Uiagalelei is representing former Lt. Siaosi Aiono; while Assistant Public Defender Ryan Anderson is representing former police officer Emanuele Lito.

Samoa News should point out that according to sources, both men are no longer with the Department of Public Safety, with Aiono officially resigning before he left for Australia, and Lito retiring last week, before his case was called in court.

During their initial appearances — the two cases were called separately — both defendants waived the reading of the charge and the information, and asked for a pretrial conference within 30 days.

Judge Sunia noted both defendants’ not guilty pleas and then scheduled their pretrial conference for June 28 at 9a.m.

Both Aiono and Lito appeared through summons, and the court ordered that they continue to be free on their own recognizance under certain conditions including the usual order to be law abiding citizens; make all court appearances and they must stay in close contact with their attorneys while their matters are pending in court.

They were also ordered not to have any physical contact with the victims in their cases; nor are they to try to have direct or indirect contact with government witnesses.

For Aiono, he was ordered not to leave or try to leave the territory, and he has to surrender his travel documents to the government until this matter is resolved.

According to the government, the case against Aiono was filed on Monday, May 14, two days after he left the territory for Australia. Sources say at the time it was possible the government would ask the court to issue an arrest warrant for Aiono if he was not back on island before his scheduled court date, and he had to appear in court when his case was called.

Aiono arrived back on island last week where he was then served with the copy of the criminal complaint against him on Tuesday, before his initial appearance on Friday.

Lito was served with the copy of the criminal complaint against him on the same date the government filed the criminal case, which was Monday, May 14.

One of the female officers who is the alleged victim in one of the cases was in court with some of her family members.

Family members of both Aiono and Lito accompanied the men to court.

BACKGROUND

The cases against two former police officers stem from two separate incidents that allegedly happened inside a DPS work environment.

Lt. Aiono’s case surfaced last month when a report regarding an alleged harassment action against a female officer at the Tafuna Police Substation was filed at the DPS Internal Affairs Division (IA). The alleged incident involved Aiono touching the victim’s butt in a sexual manner, as well as trying to kiss her, despite her refusal.

Officer Lito’s case stems from an alleged incident that happened last year when he and the victim were both working at the DPS Fagaitua Substation. The alleged incident began when they were in a police unit and continued when they were in the substation on the same day. The victim alleges Lito sexually harassed her in the police unit by inappropriately touching her face and breast, and at the substation he continued to make sexual innuendoes, and later tried to kiss her against her will.