Young man charged with over 25 counts of sex abuse including rape
Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — An alleged sexual relationship between two high school students resulted with a young man being arrested and charged with more than 20 criminal charges, after the mother of the girl reported to authorities that her 15-year-old daughter is pregnant as a result of the sexual relationship.
Twenty-year-old Felix Faalogo made his initial appearance in District Court last month after being arrested pursuant to an arrest warrant from the court.
Faalogo is charged with 25 criminal charges including 20 counts of sodomy and 5 counts of rape, all class B felonies, punishable by a term of imprisonment for five (5) to fifteen (15) years.
Bail is set at $50,000.
Last week, Faalogo waived his constitutional rights to a preliminary examination (PX) where his case was bound over to High Court. Faalogo appeared in High Court last Friday for arraignment where he entered a not guilty plea to all the charges against him.
His pretrial conference is set for March and his remanded back to the custody of the government until he post bond.
THE CASE
According to the government’s case, a mother walked into the Fagatogo Central Police Station on Nov. 10, 2020 to file a complaint against a young male for allegedly engaging in sexual relationship with her 15-year-old daughter. The woman was later identified as the victim’s mother.
The mother told investigators that the matter about her daughter came to light when her daughter (victim) almost fainted on Sunday morning, Nov. 8, 2020 after which she took her to the LBJ Medical Hospital where she was treated for anemia and the test results confirmed her daughter was pregnant.
Investigators from the DPS Criminal Investigation Division (CID) were assigned to investigate the matter and were able to speak to several people involved in this matter.
The victim was interviewed by investigators in the presence of her mother. The victim told investigators that she and the defendant began their relationship in February 2019 while she was a 9th grader, 14 years old at the time and the defendant was an 11th grader, 19 years old at the time.
The victim recalled that there were two incidents that took place inside an abandoned house next to her home in Alao. The first incident allegedly occurred in June 2020 and the second incident allegedly happened in mid-September of the same year.
On Nov.10, 2020, investigators contacted the defendant via cellphone and asked if he could come into the police station for questioning, to which he agreed.
Before the defendant was interviewed by two investigators, he was informed that he was not under arrest or in custody and he was free to leave. The defendant stated that he understood and was willing to cooperate. He further stated to investigators that he would provide as much information regarding the alleged incident involving him and the minor victim.
According to the defendant’s statement to investigators, their relationship began when they were in high school. He was in 11th grade while the victim was in 9th grade and he graduated from high school in June of 2020.
He immediately admitted to investigators that he had a sexual relationship with the minor victim that started back in 2019 and continued until the present.
It was when the defendant admitted to having a sexual relationship with the victim that he was Mirandized, after which he stated that he understood and stated that he was willing to make a verbal and a written statement about what allegedly happened.
The defendant recalled the relationship and admitted to investigators that they began having consensual sexual intercourse in the month of February 2019 up until October 2020. He explained that every month they would have sex multiple times and that it was all consensual.
After the defendant was interviewed, the victim was then re-interviewed by investigators to clarify some of the information they got during the defendant’s interview. The victim provided additional information and stated that she was afraid of explaining her entire relationship with Faalogo because her mother was present.
This time, the victim offered more information about their relationship with the defendant. She told investigators that she had sexual intercourse with the defendant multiple times and she had she lost count.
The victim make it clear to investigators that at no time did the defendant force her to have sex with him. It was always consensual.