District Court Judge Fiti A. Sunia has denied a defense motion to quash the arrest warrant issued last month for the arrest of US citizen Dean J. Fletcher, who is wanted by authorities in Tonga for the alleged murder of his wife onboard the couple’s boat in Tonga’s waters.

With the court’s action during a hearing yesterday, another status hearing is now set for Nov. 22 for Fletcher, 53, who is charged in the local court with one misdemeanor count of unlawfully entering and landing at the Port of Pago Pago, on Oct. 3, without clearance from port officials.

At yesterday’s court proceedings Fletcher’s attorney, assistant public defender Mathoni M. McCormick moved to quash the Oct. 4 arrest warrant issued by the District Court. He cited several reasons to support his motion.

For example, the government accused the defendant of landing in Pago Pago without permission but court filings by the government don’t provide the time and date that Customs office questioned the defendant about not giving advance notice before entering the territory.

Additionally, court documents do not identify by name any Customs officers who questioned Fletcher upon entering the territory, except for police who found the defendant on his boat in waters off the eastern side of Tutuila. And if it’s the police officers that questioned the defendant, the government should be clear in its case that police were representing the Customs Office.

McCormick said that it was based on the government’s affidavit, in which the court issued the arrest warrant, which should be quashed. Sunia interjected saying that what the defense is arguing, means the court will have to re-start from the beginning the entire matter in this case.

At the outset of McCormick’s arguments, he sought to have the misdemeanor charge dismissed arguing the arrest warrant was ineffective. But when Sunia started to raise his voice during questioning of the defense attorney as to why arrest the warrant was ineffective, McCormick then corrected himself by withdrawing his request to dismiss the charge against his client and proceeded to argue to quash the arrest warrant.

Sunia read the arrest warrant to McCormick, saying there is no problem with it.

Assistant Attorney General Jerard Murphy said the government is prepared to re-start this whole case, if that is what the defense is seeking. However, he said that if the court decides to grant the defense motion to dismiss the single charge against the defendant, the government requests that Fletcher be released into the custody of local attorney Mark Ude, to wait for the government’s re-filing the charge against the defendant the next day.

In the end, Sunia rejected the motion to quash the arrest. (Original Samoan story in Lali section of today’s Samoa News edition.)

USDOJ REPLY

Tonga-based online publication Matangi Tonga reports last month that extradition proceedings have began between the Offices of the Attorney General in American Samoa and Tonga as well as the US Justice Department to extradite Fletcher back to Tonga.

Responding to Samoa News questions early this week, USDOJ spokesman Peter Carr said yesterday morning that, “As a matter of policy, the Justice Department generally does not comment on extradition-related matters, which would include confirming whether an extradition request has been made.”

Carr also provided an online link, which provides an overview of the extradition process. According to the federal link, foreign requests for extradition of fugitives from the United States are ordinarily submitted by the embassy of the country making the request to the Department of State, which reviews and forwards them to the Criminal Division's Office of International Affairs (OIA).

The requests are of two types: formal requisitions supported by all documents required under the applicable treaty, or requests for provisional arrest. Requests for provisional arrest may be received directly by the Department of Justice if the treaty permits.

Tonga police officers under investigation over fugitive's escape

Tonga's police commissioner says an internal investigation has identified serious shortcomings in the lead-up to an American fugitive escaping Vava'u in September.

Dean Jay Fletcher, who has been charged with the murder of his wife, escaped from a police station in September and fled on a yacht to American Samoa where he was arrested.

The commissioner, Steve Caldwell, said there were serious shortfalls in accepted procedures around the management of prisoners.

The police have refused to go into further detail about the shortfalls, saying that the case is under active investigation.

Five police officers on Vava'u are now under investigation and face possible disciplinary action