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Matthew Tafua’s bond reduced in alleged OMV scam

District Court Judge, Fiti Sunia

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — District Court Judge, Fiti Sunia has granted the defense’s motion to reduce the bail amount for the employee of the Office of Motor Vehicles (OMV), who is accused of providing forged commercial driver’s permits to several local drivers from $10,000 to $5,000.

Matthew Tafua, who is charged with two counts of forgery and two counts of acceding to corruption, both felonies, appeared in court yesterday morning for his Status Hearing. He is represented by Assistant Public Defender, Anna Wells, while prosecuting the case is Assistant Attorney General, Laura Garvey.

When Tafua’s case was called in court yesterday, his attorney advised the court that Tafu’a wish to exercise his constitutional rights to a preliminary examination (PX). Sunia then set Tafua’s PX for Friday next week, Oct. 5, 2018 at 1p.m.

Defense attorney Wells also asked the court to reduce her client’s bail in the amount of $5,000. She told the court that Tafua is a resident of American Samoa, and this is his first criminal case.

Garvey opposed the defense’s motion to reduce bond, given the seriousness of the charges arguing that $10,000 bail is a reasonable amount for this case.

Sunia considered both parties submissions and then ruled that Tafua’s bail is reduced down to $5,000, cash or surety.

BACKGROUND

Tafua is accused of providing forged commercial driver’s permits to several local drivers in exchange for cash.

After police presented Tafua with evidence of what was discovered during the course of the investigation, he immediately admitted to providing forged commercial driver’s permits to a driver by the name of Gasolo Gasolo and a bus driver named Natu Sio Jr. but said he charged Gasolo $30 and Sio $20.

He told investigators that he learned the practice from former OMV employee Sam Kolone, as a way to make some extra money, given his “constricted paycheck”.