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Man arrested for rape, but both parties say sex was consensual

American Samoa District Court building
ausage@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A man with a prior drug conviction was arrested by police last month on the allegation that he raped a 16-year-old girl who ran away from her home.

The alleged rapist made his initial appearance in court last month.

He is charged with 3 counts of rape and 3 counts of sodomy, both class B felonies, punishable by a term of imprisonment of not less than five years nor more than fifteen years; along with one unlawful possession of methamphetamine (meth), an unclassified felony.

Bail is set at $30,000.

(Samoa News has chosen not to name the defendant or the village in order to protect the victim.)

THE CASE

On Sept. 28th, 2021, a couple walked into the Tafuna Police Substation (TPS) requesting police assistance regarding their 16-year-old daughter who ran away from home. In addition, she has not attended school for two days. Furthermore, the couple also told police that this is not the first time their daughter had run away from home.

The couple provided additional information to police in an effort to assist officers with their investigation on how to locate their missing daughter. According to the information provided to police, a woman in the Tafuna area contacted them and said that their daughter was seen with a man, later identified as the defendant in this case. The man was standing with the victim in front of the Veteran Stadium in Tafuna around 5p.m on Sept. 20th.

On the following morning, Sept. 21st, the couple went back to the TPS and informed a police sergeant that they have found their daughter but they were concerned that their daughter might have had a physical relationship with the defendant, who they found out is 28 years old and had been in contact with their daughter almost every day via Facebook Messenger.

Investigators requested permission from the victim’s parent to interview her (victim) without their presence. The couple agreed.

According to the victim, she stated that it was on Jan. 10th, 2021, she had her first sexual encounter with her boyfriend (defendant), at his residence. The encounter was consensual she said. The victim further noted that they had been having consensual sex about four or more times a week.

The victim told investigators that there were times where the defendant gave her money to buy food and clothes after they had sex.

It was in August of this year, the defendant started calling her to come over to his house to hang out with him, and on Aug. 10th, she skipped school and went straight to his house where they spent two nights inside his room at his house.

After interviewing the victim, investigators went to the defendant’s house to speak with him, however, he was not home. He was apprehended the following morning when police went back to his house and found him sleeping inside his room.

Before the defendant was transported to the TPS for questioning, he was patted down and officers discovered a glass pipe containing white crystalline substance inside his pocket.

At TPS, he was Mirandized and he stated that he understood his rights and wished to make a statement about the incident.

When asked about the glass pipe containing white crystalline substance discovered in his possession, the defendant admitted that the glass pipe belonged to him. He stated that he bought the glass pipe from a man in Iliili for $25 and its for his own personal use.

When questioned about the alleged sexual relationship with the victim, the defendant  broke down into tears and immediately confessed his actions. He admitted that the sexual relationship with the victim started in January of this year and lasted for 10 months.

The defendant stated to investigators that it was the victim who first came to his house and they hung out for the whole day — and it included consensual sex twice —  before the victim went back home.

Their sexual relationship continued until Sept. 21st when the victim told him that her parents and police are looking for them.

BACKGROUND

The defendant was previously convicted of unlawful possession of meth and was sentenced to serve 20 months at the Territorial Correctional Facility (TCF) as a condition of his 5 years probation. He was initially charged with one count of unlawful possession of meth; one count of unlawful possession of meth with the intent to distribute; and two counts of possession of unlicensed arms, all felonies.

He pled guilty to the amended charge of unlawful possession of meth. The remaining charges were dismissed as a condition of the plea agreement between parties.

The charges against the defendant stemmed from an incident where he had been considered by police as a Person of Interest (POI) for many months in 2014, under the suspicion that he was involved in the drug business. His vehicle was always seen at a house of another person who was also considered by police as a POI.

The government claimed that on Apr. 30th, 2014, patrolling police officers in the Nu’uuli area conducted a traffic stop on a red pickup truck for a traffic violation. The driver of the vehicle was later identified as the defendant. He, along with his wife and children, were inside the vehicle when police pulled it over.

According to the government, the vehicle was pulled over for having illegal additional lights on his vehicle, including an Emergency light added to the front of the vehicle. He was also found at that time to be driving with an expired license.

It was during the traffic stop that the DPS Vice and Narcotics/K9 Unit arrived on the scene and a K9 sniffing dog conducted a search around the vehicle for illegal drugs. The dog showed interest in the driver’s side of the vehicle.

The defendant did deny police permission to search his vehicle, however, it was impounded to the Tafuna Police Substation (TPS) for further investigation due to the illegal lights and his expired license.

He was then handcuffed and placed inside the police unit and transported to the TPS. It was when police were removing his handcuffs that one of the officers observed the defendant was holding something in his hand; and when he opened his hand, police observed two cut-up straws containing white crystalline substance.

The white crystalline substance was tested and the results were positive for meth. No other drugs were found on the defendant’s person, nor in the vehicle.

When asked about the two cut-up straws containing meth, the defendant said they belonged to him.