Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A man from Iliili, along with his girlfriend were both arrested on the allegation they assaulted each other.

Joseph Sagapolutele and his girlfriend, Baby Tafaoata Tago made their initial appearance in court last week.

Each is charged with one count of 2nd degree assault, a class D felony, punishable by a term of imprisonment of up to five years, a fine of up to $5,000, or both.

Bail for each defendant is set at $5,000.

THE ALLEGATION

According to the government’s case, it was the morning of Nov. 28, 2021 when the Tafuna Police Substation (TPS) received a call regarding a domestic violence matter in Iliili. Police were told that a man stated that his girlfriend had tried to stab him with a knife and destroyed most of the things in his house.

The man was later identified as Joseph Sagapolutele, one of the co-defendants in this matter. His girlfriend was later identified as Baby Tagaloa Tafaota Tago, the co-defendant in this matter.

Several police officers responded to the call and met up with Sagapolutele who explained the situation and later during the field investigation Tago returned to the scene and was then apprehended with Sagapolutele and was transported to the TPS for further investigation. One machete and two kitchen knives were seized from the house.

According to Sagapolutele’s verbal and written statement, his girlfriend him that “she was going to go to Nu’uuli to get her back massaged” so he told her “yeah okay” and then she asked why does he have to talk back to her that way. She then stood up and tossed over a basket of clothes on the floor and walked to the kitchen where she threw an unknown item that shattered in the kitchen.

Tago proceeded to head outside through the back door out of frustration slamming and kicking the door from the outside. When Tago came back inside, she grabbed a kitchen knife and threw it at her boyfriend, which missed him and hit the wall as he was running outside.

After Tago threw the knife at her boyfriend, she went back into the kitchen and grabbed another knife and threatened to kill her boyfriend and commit suicide. She then threw all her boyfriend’s documents outside and left the house.

Sagapolutele told investigators that the reason why his girlfriend was mad at him was because they had no cigarettes. Tago told her boyfriend’s son to go next door to the neighbor’s house and grab her a cigarette.

Sagapolutele’s son was also interviewed by investigators and stated that when he was standing outside in the plantation, he heard loud screaming and cuss words which he couldn’t really understand, he then went back to his house only to see his father running outside of the house scared. His father then went back inside the house and grabbed a machete and threw it near Tago. The boy said he doesn’t know whether his father had tried to throw it at Tago but it landed in another room.

Tago told investigators she had asked her boyfriend if she could go to Nu’uuli to get her back massaged and he cussed at her, which triggered and angered her to the point where she grabbed a knife and threw it. She further stated that her boyfriend responded by grabbing a machete and attempted to throw it at her, but missed and it went into another room.

That was when she grabbed the kitchen knife and tried to stab him when he was standing right in front of her but he grabbed onto her wrist and shook the knife out of her hand. She later left the scene.