Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A 31-year-old man who is on probation for assaulting his partner is wanted by the High Court after the Probation Office issued an Order to Show Cause (OSC) for non-compliance with conditions of his probation.

Ethan Mauga was scheduled to appear before Associate Justice Fiti Sunia last week for a Probation Review but did not show. Probation informed the court that they’re still searching for Mauga to serve him with the outstanding OSC.

Sunia asked the Assistant Public Defender, Ryan Anderson about his client’s whereabouts, to which Anderson replied that he hasn’t heard from him for many months now and his office is also trying their best to locate his client regarding the outstanding OSC.

The court instructed the marshal to try and locate the defendant too.

BACKGROUND

In January of last year, Mauga was convicted of one count of private peace disturbance involving domestic violence, a class C misdemeanor; one count of criminal contempt, a class A misdemeanor; and one count of public peace disturbance, a class B misdemeanor.

He was sentenced to 15 days imprisonment and a $300 fine for private peace disturbance involving domestic violence. He was also sentenced to 6 months in jail and a $500 fine for public peace disturbance. For criminal contempt, he was sentenced to one year behind bars and a $1,000 fine.

The sentences were to run consecutively; however, execution of sentence was suspended and Mauga was placed on probation for 24 months subject to several conditions. He was to serve 90 days at the TCF, and was credited with the 78 days he had served in pretrial confinement. He also was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine.

The court was also told that Mauga had appeared in District Court in 2019 for 3 separate domestic cases involving the same victim. His first domestic violence conviction was a few years back, which also involved the same victim.

Seven months after he was sentenced, Mauga was re-arrested for assaulting the same victim in August. He was eventually charged with three misdemeanor charges including 3rd degree assault; private peace disturbance and resisting arrest, all involving domestic violence.