Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A 45-year-old father and his 22-year-old son, who were accused of assaulting the man’s nephew and his daughter’s boyfriend were arrested last month after the matter was reported to police.

The father, assisted by his son, is accused of assaulting his 17-year-old nephew for hiding what the father’s daughter was doing, and assaulting the boyfriend, who was found hiding under the daughter’s bed inside the family’s home in Malaeimi.

The father, Mikaele Kuresa and his son, Andrew Kuresa appeared in District Court last week for their initial appearances.

Mikaele and his son, Andrew are each charged with one count of 2nd- degree assault, two counts of abuse of a child, all class D felonies, punishable by a term of imprisonment of up to five years, a fine of up to $5,000, or both, along with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child and one count of PPD, all misdemeanors.

Bail for each defendant is set at $20,000.

THE ALLEGATION

According to the government’s case, it was about 7p.m on Friday night, Sept. 30, 2022 when a 17-year-old male, later identified as the first victim in this case, walked into the Tafuna Police Substation (TPS) asking for assistance regarding a situation involving his uncle, Mikaele Kuresa (defendant) and his cousin (uncle’s son), Andrew Kuresa (co-defendants).

The first victim is named in the affidavit as S.H.

According to the government’s case, S.H walked into the TPS applying pressure to his head with an ie lavalava (sarong) and officers noticed bleeding from S.H’s head and contacted emergency medical services.

EMS crews arrived and treated S.H. After receiving treatment, S.H refused to go to the LBJ Hospital.

Investigators then interviewed S.H who provided a voluntary written statement of what allegedly happened in Malaeimi.

S.H told investigators that he was playing volleyball in the village when his cousin Andrew (co-defendant) approached him telling him to come home, as Mikaele — Andrew’s father and co-defendant, wanted to talk to him.

At the house, S.H said Mikaele yelled at him saying why was he hiding what his daughter was doing. Mikaele then struck S.H.

S.H then ran outside of the house, but Andrew stopped him and started punching him several times on his arms. S.H told investigators that after Andrew punched him several times, he (Andrew) grabbed a chair and threw it at him causing the chair to hit his back.

S.H then ran away and continued to run going through the shortcut from Malaeimi to Kokoland and he then went to his aunty’s house in Kokoland and explain to her what allegedly happened. The victim’s aunt brought him to the TPS for help.

After receiving S.H’s statement, investigators proceeded to locate Mikaele and his son, Andrew,  as well as a female who identified herself as Mikaele’s daughter. They were all transported to the TPS for questioning.

Mikaele’s daughter was interviewed separately from her father and brother, Andrew.

The defendant’s daughter told investigators after school that day she came home, and saw her boyfriend, T.M (second victim) in front of her house in Malaeimi and told her boyfriend to leave the house before her father comes home.

Just moments later, Mikaele came home from work and the daughter was scared because her boyfriend was still at the house inside her room. Mikaele’s daughter told her cousin (first victim) to tell her boyfriend to go and hide under her bed before her father (Mikaele) discovered him inside the house.

Both defendants, Mikaele and Andrew came into the house and Andrew noticed something was going on with his sister. Andrew went inside his sister’s bedroom and saw the second victim hiding under his sister’s bed. Andrew went out of the room and came back with a knife and called out to the second victim to come out of the room.

According to the daughter, her father, Mikaele struck her boyfriend with a chair and punched him several times. Her brother, Andrew used a small piece of plywood and struck her boyfriend on his body and back. As both defendants continued to assault her cousin, Mikaele’s daughter said hey boyfriend was able to get up and run for his life.

Mikaele was Mirandized and agreed to make a statement about what happened.

According to Mikaele, he got home from work around 4:30p.m and decided to go shower and get some fresh air. Two hours later about 6:30p.m he heard from one of the bedrooms in the house that someone was yelling and something was going on.

He immediately stood up and went to his daughter’s bedroom to check what was going on and when he stepped into the bedroom he saw a T.M (second victim) coming out from under his daughter’s bed. Mikaele said he got very upset and started to punch and kick T.M several times on his body and back.

Mikaele admitted to investigators that he punched T.M in the head about three times and kicked his back and side while T.M sat on the floor trying to get up and escape.

Andrew was also Mirandized and he said he was willing to provide a statement about what happened at his home.

Andrew stated to investigators that when he got home from work with his dad he had heard from a family member that his sister would often bring her boyfriend (second victim) to their home, and hide him under her bed in her bedroom.

Andrew said he went straight towards his sister’s bedroom but stopped when he noticed his sister kept following him. Andrew pretended that he did not know what was going on, when his sister stopped following him, he stormed into his sister’s bedroom and heard someone snoring.

Andrew went back, changed his work clothes and stormed back into his sister’s bedroom and kicked the bed saying, “come out now”. The second victim remained under the bed and still did not come out from under the bed.

After several attempts to locate the second victim, investigators informed the second victim’s mother to walk in with the second victim if she was able to find him.

On the following morning, Oct. 1, the second victim walked into the TPS accompanied by his mother. EMS crews were also notified and they arrived and assisted the second victim. EMS reports revealed that the second victim sustained a deep laceration to the top of his head, and also a laceration in the back of his head. He was later transported to the LBJ Hospital for further medical treatment.