Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A 37-year-man accused of unlawfully entering a home and attempting to sexually assault a woman after he allegedly broke into the woman’s home was arrested by police last month after he was pulled over during a traffic stop in the Matu’u area.

Farani Eveni is charged with 1st degree burglary and false imprisonment, both felonies, along with trespass, 3rd degree assault and private peace disturbance, both class A misdemeanors.

Bail was set at $15,000.

THE ALLEGATION

On Nov. 12, 2020 in the morning, several police officers responded to a call for a possible sexual abuse and burglary case involving a woman and her home in Tafeta. Police met up with the victim who told them her side of what allegedly happened.

According to the victim’s statement to police, she was asleep when she awoke suddenly at approximately 4:00 a.m to see the defendant (Eveni) standing over her. The victim stated that she knows Eveni, because he used to live in the area.

The victim further told police that she also knows Eveni, because he had broken into her home on two other occasions.

The first time was two months ago. The victim’s stated that she was sleeping in her house living room and she woke up to see Eveni standing inside her house (in the living room) in his boxer shorts. She called out to him to get out, but defendant asked her for money, to which she told him that she didn’t have any money. She then told him to leave the house before she calls police and he ran away.

The second time was at the end of last month but the victim doesn’t remember the exact date and time. According to the victim’s statement, she heard someone trying to break into the house through the back door, while she was sleeping. She did not want to get up because she was very tired, however, when the noise got louder, she stood up and walked to the back portion of her house to see for herself who was making the noise.

That’s when she allegedly saw Eveni standing outside of the door with a metal pipe in his right hand, trying to open the door. She chased him away and he immediately left. Her back door was not open.

However, the next morning, the victim was shocked to find out that the back door was damaged and open, and all of her shopping that she had left on her kitchen counter had disappeared. The victim told police that she did not see Eveni commit the crime of stealing her groceries, but she believed that he was the one who broke into her house and stole her shopping.

Two days later, the victim spoke to Eveni’s mother about the incident and the defendant’s mother immediately apologized to her (victim) for what had happened, and told the victim that she will pay back the money for her shopping. According to the victim, she spent $131.43 on her shopping.

The victim did not report the two alleged incidents to police as they both live in the same area and she did not want bad feelings between herself and Eveni’s family.

In this third incident, the victim told police that when she recognized it was Eveni standing over her, he (Eveni) put his hand over her mouth to stop her from yelling and held her down and at the same time threatened to kill her if she screamed for help. The victim told police that Eveni tried to touch her in a sexual manner but she quickly pushed him away.

According to the victim, she was able to grab her cell phone and get away from Eveni by pushing him away from her. She then ran outside of her house and called out to her neighbors for help. Her neighbors, an elderly couple, opened their door and allowed the victim to come inside before the victim contacted police and reported the incident.

The elderly couple told police that as they tried to clean their house, they heard the woman living next door yelling out for help. When they opened their door, they said the woman ran towards their house, so, they allowed her inside with open arms.

Last month, police officers on a traffic stop pulled over a black pickup truck for speeding. The driver of the said vehicle was later identified as the defendant in this case. Police immediately arrested Eveni pursuant to an outstanding warrant from the court.

When questioned about the incident, Eveni admitted to police that he broke into the victim’s home twice two months ago, before he allegedly entered her home two weeks ago uninvited. Eveni also told police that he stole the victim’s shopping which was on the table inside the house and took it with him without her permission.