Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A man accused of sexually abusing a 15-year old girl is now in custody after he was arrested by police pursuant to an arrest warrant from the court.

Vaioa Pomate made his initial appearance in District Court last month. He is charged with 6 criminal charges, including attempted rape and 4 counts of 1st degree sexual abuse, all class C felonies, punishable by a term of imprisonment of up to seven years, a fine of not more than $5,000, or both; and 1 count of endangering the welfare of a child, a class A misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment for up to one year, a fine of nor more than $1,000, or both.

Bail is set at $20,000.

THE CASE

On May 27, 2021, two teen girls left Fagaitua High School during lunch time to catch an aiga bus to Pago Pago to meet with a 17 year old boy. The two girls are the two victims in this case. S.T is 16 years old and G.F is 15 years old.

The 17-year-old male is named in the affidavit as W.T.

Around 12noon, the two victims met up with W.T on the main road in Pago Pago and W.T then escorted the two (S.T and G.F) to an abandoned house where they stayed for about an hour and a half.

Later on, W.F (male) escorted S.T. and G. F. to his house after one of the victims complained about her back hurting from sitting on a chair for over an hour.

The three teenagers entered the house through the living room, which contained a bed and a couch that was the backseat from a vehicle and a chair.

The defendant in this matter, Vaioa Pomata entered the house and saw the two young girls in the living with W.T and the defendant asked W.T who the two females were and W.T stated that they were both his girlfriends. Pomate asked W.T to bring one of the girls to hang out with him and W.T said no.

Pomate walked over to the couch and sat next to one of the victims, G.F and whispered something in her ear, whereupon they got up and walked to Pomate’s bedroom. 

In the bedroom, Pomate allegedly sexually abuse G.F by touching her inappropriately, and allegedly failed twice to rape the young victim. Eventually after 3 hours, Pomate walked with G.F to wait for a bus at around 3p.m.

On the next day, May 28th one of the victims (S.T) was taken into the Fagatogo Central Police Station by her mother to file a criminal complaint against Pomate. The case was then transferred to the DPS Criminal Investigation Division (CID)

Two weeks later on June 15th, Pomate was brought into the CID office where he was Mirandized. He waived his rights and chose to make a statement.

Pomate verbally admitted what he did when they got into the bedroom in his house — touching G.F inappropriately — and that he tried twice to have sexual intercourse with the victim, but he failed after the victim pushed him away and told him no.

S.T was interviewed by investigators regarding what allegedly happened. She was also taken into the OB-GYN clinic to be medially assessed.

S.T told investigators what happened inside the house in Pago Pago when they entered with her friend G.F.

The juvenile male (W.T) was interviewed by investigators in the presence of his mother, and confirmed the events that led to S.T and G.T (the two victims) being at his house, including the time at the abandoned house.

W.T also stated to investigators that Pomate came out of his bedroom and asked him about the two females in the house. W.T confirmed that Pomate took G.F into his bedroom for the rest of the afternoon.

It’s not clear from the affidavit whether the juvenile male individual has been charged in this case.