Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Leauma B. Alefosio is continuing to fight the American Samoa Government (ASG) in the US District Court in Hawaii, to right what he claims was wrongful termination in May 2021, while he was working for the Public Defender’s Office (PD). 

His case dates back to when plaintiff was employed by the ASG for 19 months, starting from Oct. 21, 2019 until May 7, 2021, the date plaintiff stated he was wrongfully terminated from his employment as Investigator, Translator, and Administrator with the PD by defendant, ASG, through its agent, Michael White, where he worked for approximately two years.

HIs fight began in American Samoa, and has since been moved to the Hawaii District Court, after being dismissed by the High Court of American Samoa (Trial Division) in June 2023.

Alefosio told Samoa News that in his latest filings he has named several federal officials and agencies as well as local officials and ASG for Fraud Upon the Court. 

“I have been allowed to file an amended complaint, and it has been submitted and filed on October 20th. At this point, I feel that the District Court is either going to do the right thing or intentionally shield defendants from their misconduct… This case is essentially a David v. Goliath type case.“

In his latest filings, Alefosio is asking for an Order directing Defendant ASG to immediately reinstate full back pay and complete expungement of all retaliatory personnel files, false termination notices, and adverse ratings.

He is also seeking Compensatory and Economic Damages for the four Counts in his case — an award of actual, economic, and compensatory damages against Defendants, jointly and severally, in an amount to be proven at trial, but NOT LESS THAN $3,500,000.00.

According to Alefosio, he has also filed three Declarations corroborating under oath what he witnessed, as well as filing evidence to verify all claims.

DEFENDANTS

The named defendants in this new Independent Action are; the EEOC, ASG, Asato Imanaka Law Firm, Anthony Suetsugu (partner at Imanaka Firm), Joseph McGinley (Assistant US Attorney, Raymond Griffin (EEOC Director Hawaii Office), Emily Mauga (EEOC Employee), and Roy Hall (Deputy AG for ASG). 

They for being sued for: 
Count I (Fraud upon the Court pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(d)(3); 
Count II (Civil Rights Conspiracy), arises under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1985(2) and 1985(3);
Count III (Due Process Violations) Arises under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, enforced pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983; and.
Count IV (Failure to Prevent Civil Rights Conspiracy): Arises under 42 U.S.C. § 1986.

Alefosio alleges for Fraud Upon the Court Count 1, Defendants Roy Hall, Anthony Suetsugu, Imanaka Asato LLLC, Joseph McGinley, Emily Mauga, and Raymond Griffin executed an intentional, coordinated scheme to deceive the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii. 

Specifically, Defendants ASG, Hall, Suetsugu, and Imanaka Asato LLLC intentionally suppressed the active, court-enforced Tuiteleleapaga Hawaii Consent Decree. which Defendant Hall personally signed, and withheld the April 8, 2021 HR transfer recommendation letter. 

Defendants executed this concealment specifically to fabricate false threshold defenses of missing minimum contacts, lack of personal jurisdiction, and failure to exhaust administrative remedies in Alefosio I (Civ. No. 1:24-cv-00196 HG-KJM) and Alefosio II (Civ. No. 1:24-cv-00281 HG-KJM).

He claims that defendants Mauga and Griffin directly facilitated this fraud upon the tribunal by manipulating administrative dockets within the EEOC Honolulu District Office, splitting Plaintiff’s charge numbers, ignoring five formal written requests for reconsideration (with Plaintiff's OALJ complaint attached), and transmitting an incomplete administrative record into Hawaii federal court to engineer artificial, pretextual time-bars. 

Alefosio further alleges that defendant AUSA McGinley actively advanced the deception by transmitting non-procedural ex parte communications into judicial chambers, attempting to compel Plaintiff to execute a Rule 26(f) report to bypass defaulted answer deadlines, and misrepresenting controlling authority (Ward v. EEOC) to force claim withdrawals and insulate the underlying administrative fraud from independent judicial scrutiny.

For Count II: Civil Rights Conspiracy: He alleges the defendants engaged in a coordinated scheme executed specifically to fabricate false threshold defenses, engineer artificial time-bars by withholding statutory Right-to-Sue notices (by EEOC), manufacture a pretextual termination narrative (by ASG), and procure fraudulent dismissals in Alefosio I and Alefosio II cases with an intent to suppress protected civil rights activities, and a deliberate effort to defeat equitable tolling under federal law.

For Count III: Violation of Procedural and Substantive Due Process: Alefosio claims as a certified career service employee under American Samoa Code Annotated (A.S.C.A.) and applicable American Samoa Government personnel regulations, he held a legally vested, constitutionally protected property interest in his continued career service employment, accrued grade and compensation, and entitlement to pre- and post-deprivation administrative grievance procedures prior to any adverse employment action. He states that he also had a constitutionally protected property and liberty interest in enforced compliance with binding judicial mandates, including the active, court-enforced Tuiteleleapaga Hawaii Consent Decree (Civ. No. 1:23-cv-00209 HG-KJM), and the fundamental right to seek uncorrupted judicial review free from intentional evidentiary suppression.

For Count IV: Failure to prevent civil rights conspiracy. Alefosio states that this is brought against Defendants Emily Mauga, Raymond Griffin, and Assistant US Attorney Joseph McGinley. He alleges that instead of fulfilling their statutory and procedural duties, Defendants failed to exercise reasonable diligence to prevent the ongoing deprivation of Plaintiff's civil rights. 

Defendants Griffin and Mauga repeatedly ignored Plaintiff’s written recusal demands and five formal reconsideration applications, permitting administrative dockets to remain split, suppressed, and stripped of statutory Right-to-Sue notices.

He continued that despite receiving explicit notice from Plaintiff in 2024 regarding the application of equitable tolling to his filings, Defendant Emily Mauga neglected and refused to exercise her administrative authority to apply tolling, unify the dockets, or issue proper statutory notices. Defendant Mauga's deliberate refusal to act after being put on express notice directly facilitated the fraudulent procurement of threshold time-bar dismissals. 

In addition, Alefosio alleges that Defendant AUSA McGinley failed to correct material omissions, permitting incomplete and manipulated administrative records to be presented to the federal bench while concealing the active Tuiteleleapaga Consent Decree, thereby directly facilitating the fraudulent procurement of threshold dismissal orders in Alefosio I and Alefosio II.

REMEDY

For Remedy, Alefosio is asking the Court to issue:

(1) An Order setting aside, vacating, and declaring null and void all prior orders of dismissal and adverse judgments entered in Alefosio I and Alefosio II, on the ground that said judgments were procured through fraud upon the court, document suppression, and bad-faith deception; 

(2) An Order declaring that the Tuiteleleapaga Consent Decree was procured and utilized by Defendants under false pretenses, material omissions, and the intentional circumvention of required party joinder under Fed. R. Civ. P. 19, specifically by concealing Plaintiff’s suppressed April 8, 2021 HR transfer recommendation letter and active Title VII retaliation complaints to construct a pretextual termination narrative and declaring said Decree non-binding as to Plaintiff or setting aside any settlement bars obtained through such fraud upon the court; 

(3) An Order directing Defendant American Samoa Government (ASG) to immediately reinstate full back pay and complete expungement of all retaliatory personnel files, false termination notices, and adverse ratings; and,

(4) An Order directing Defendants to purge all falsified, split, or manipulated administrative dockets within the Department of Human Resources (DHR) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and to officially log the April 8, 2021 HR transfer recommendation letter as a binding administrative record.