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Wife stabs tires of husband’s car at Tafuna police substation

Translated by Samoa News staff

Two separate domestic cases on Monday this week, during separate times of the day, sent three people — including a divorced couple — to jail and all three appeared Tuesday in District Court for their initial appearance.

In the first case, which occurred in Tafuna, the woman was charged, while the second case, from Iliili, the man was charged while the woman’s case is still being investigated. As a policy, Samoa News does not identify the defendants in domestic cases to protect the victim.

TAFUNA CASE

In this case, the woman is charged with two misdemeanor counts of third degree property damage and public peace disturbance. She’s released on her own recognizance with the next court hearing set for Nov. 3.

According to court information, two vehicles turned into the Tafuna police substation the morning of Oct. 17 and police observed the couple — a man and woman — arguing and yelling at each other. As the couple walked into the sub station, officers approached them and asked them to refrain from yelling and to keep calm.

However, the 24-year-old woman kept on yelling at her husband, the government alleges in its case. It says police had to separate the couple putting them in separate rooms. An officer went into the room to interview the woman, but she was not there, she was found outside stabbing the tires of her husband’s car using a pair of scissors.

No details are available from court information as to what caused the dispute between husband and wife.

ILI’ILI CASE

For this case, court information states that a man entered the home of his divorced wife without her consent to see his kids. It says there is a court protection order against the man from the state of Hawai’i and the validity of the order expires September 2020.

Additionally, the protective order states in part that the man is prohibited from contacting his ex-wife and their children. Furthermore, the man was aware of the order.

Court information says the man entered the ex-wife’s home and was taking his 4-year-old son but the ex-wife didn’t agree and refused to let the ex-husband leave with their son. Thereafter both individuals got into a verbal argument outside of the home, which resulted in a fight — with the 4-year-old present.

The ex-husband allegedly punched his ex-wife twice with a closed fist on her forehead causing her to stumble backwards giving him the opportunity to place his son in the front seat of his car, and proceeded to leave.

As he was reversing his car away from the home, the ex-wife grabs a nearby shovel and allegedly hit the vehicle with it. She allegedly broke the front windshield, the passenger window, the back right passenger window, along with the space cab window. All this happened while the 4-year old son was still in the car.

The ex-husband’s father took his son to the Tafuna police substation to file a police complaint and the ex-wife was also brought in.

When the couple made their initial appearance Monday, District Court Judge Fiti A. Sunia informed the woman that the government has not charged her, but a police investigation is on-going before a decision is made if any changes will be filed.

For the man, he is charged with two misdemeanor counts of violating a court order and for public peace disturbance. He is released on his own recognizance with another court appearance scheduled for next month.

The man is also ordered by the court not to make any contact with his ex-wife, be a law-abiding citizen, and maintain the peace.

Original Samoan story published in the Lali section of today’s Samoa News edition.