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Update: Langford pleads guilty to fraud and bribery in federal court

The former director of the ASG Department of Human Resources, Evelyn Langford, has pled guilty to two charges at the federal court in Oakland, California for accepting more than $200,000 from an official of Native Hawaiian Holding Company (NHHC), which was awarded a multi-million dollar contract under the federal National Emergency Grant program of the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL).

 

The grant was administered by Human Resources during the time Langford was their director as well as the Governor’s Authorized Representative (GAR) for times of disaster and national emergency.

 

 The NHHC official involved in this case is Quin Ngoc Rudin, who signed the contract between ASG and NHHC. Rudin has not been charged in the Langford case, but was charged in connection with another case pending in the Oakland federal court.

 

HEARINGS

 

Langford appeared before two separate federal judges last Friday at the Oakland federal court. She first appeared before U.S Magistrate Judge Kandis A. Westmore for her initial appearance and arraignment hearing where she entered not guilty pleas to one count each of wire fraud and “bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds”, according to court records.

 

Afterwards she appeared before U.S. District Court Judge Jon Tigar for her change of plea hearing.

 

Abraham Simmons, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Northern California told Samoa News that Langford pled guilty to one count each of fraud and bribery before U.S. District Court Judge Jon S. Tigar.

 

Langford is out on a $50,000 bond and will be sentenced June 26. Her defense attorney didn’t immediately respond to Samoa News email questions and request for comments.

 

Langford’s plea agreement is posted on federal electronic court records, but public access to the document was not available as of yesterday morning. (Samoa News should point out that there have been past cases where a plea agreement or other documents cannot be accessed by the public — only by the attorneys involved.)

 

In the criminal complaint filed in January, prosecutors said that between April 2012 and continuing to the end of 2012, Langford accepted gifts, payments and other things of value totaling at least $200,000 from Rudin and from companies associated with him and then took “steps to hide, conceal and cover up her activity and the nature and scope of her dealings with Rudin.”

 

LETTER OF SUPPORT

 

Before the two hearings, Langford’s aunty, Meleagi Suitonu-Chapman wrote a three-page letter addressed to both Westmore and Tigar asking for leniency.

 

“I pray that you will... sentence her with compassion because I believe Evelyn to be truly [sic] remorse of what she did,” Suitonu-Chapam wrote. “I pray that you will consider that she is not a woman of malice, just a woman who was caught with too many responsibilities undertaken while wearing several hats and moving fast in those hats of confusion whilst employed by our government of American Samoa.”

 

She wrote, “Her actions have not gone unseen or unheard. Her actions have caused shame amongst her father, siblings, spouse, children and grandchildren and inasmuch, our people... in American Samoa and our islands of Manu’a.

 

“Her father, siblings and family will surely carry this mark of shame always. Believe me, our people at home will not let anyone related or affiliated with Evelyn, her husband and her children forget what she did,” Suitonu-Chapman wrote. “She has realized this and has contacted her son, who is in the frontline in Afghanistan, of what is happening.”

 

Suitonu-Chapman also says that because of what Langford has done, her father will no longer be involved in any politics or participate with full rights under the Faasamoa culture and tradition. Additionally, Langford’s father will be shunned in a manner of embarrassment.

 

The letter went on to say that Langford cannot undo what she has done, yet, she can make monetary restitution through her work with her husband and family in Texas, working the family owned restaurant.

 

Suitonu-Chapman said Langford will remain in Texas where she can continue to be a good woman, wife, mother, and more so become a proverbial woman because “my niece is a good woman who committed a mistake.”

 

“My niece has suffered in many ways, she has felt the hurt and pain. As beautiful and as smart that she was, she was also blinded by those in sheep’s clothing. She is a good person, she is a giving person yet, she too is human and made a foolish mistake,” she wrote.

 

Suitonu-Chapman also informed the judges that she has advised Langford to not return home to American Samoa, “or our islands of Manu’a”, but to remain in Texas. Further, she says Langford needs to begin a new life with truth, being with her family who adores her, loves her, and supports her in strength.

 

“I do believe that her admitting, and not fleeing, says much about her as a person. A person who has made a grave error in her intellectual decisions,” said Suitonu-Chapman, who also explained that she was unable to attend Langford’s hearings because she is with a husband who is seeking medical care in Southern California.