Man from Samoa charged for raping his step daughter in Pago

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A man in his 40’s from Samoa has been charged for raping and sexually abusing his 16-year-old stepdaughter in American Samoa. 

He was arrested last month pursuant to an arrest warrant from the court. Illegal drugs were discovered in the defendant’s possession during the arrest.

Samoa News reported the government claims that the alleged sexual abuse incident began in April of this year. To protect the identity of the minor victim Samoa News is withholding the defendant’s name.

(The defendant is not new to the court system. He has previous convictions including assault, sexual abuse and violating local drug laws.)

In the first case, the defendant is charged with three counts of rape; three counts of sodomy; and three counts of first-degree sexual abuse, all felonies. He is also facing two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, a class A misdemeanor.

In the second case, the defendant is charged with one count of unlawful possession of methamphetamine (meth), a felony.

Due to the seriousness of the allegation against the defendant, the court decided to hold the defendant in custody without bail.

THE ALLEGATION

It was the victim’s aunt who reported the alleged incident to the police, which resulted in the arrest of the defendant in this matter.

Investigators interviewed several members of the victim’s family including the victim, her aunts, cousins, neighbor and grandmother. The victim’s mother was off-island during the time of the alleged incident, according to the government’s case.

Investigators first interviewed one of the victim’s aunts regarding the allegation. According to the aunt’s statement to the investigator, the matter was reported to her by her two daughters (victim’s cousins) who stated to her that they found the suspect with the victim inside the bedroom holding hands together on the night of a young cousin’s 1st birthday party, which was Apr. 20, 2022.

The victim’s aunt questioned the suspect regarding the alleged incident, but the suspect strongly denied the accusation.

When questioned by police, the victim confirmed everything her 3 aunts told authorities including that the sexual abuse started in April of this year, with the last encounter being in July of this year, and described by the victim as an alleged rape.

The victim told police she tried to push the defendant off, telling him he was hurting her but he continued to hold her down and performed sexual acts on her.

Moments later, the victim’s female cousin walked in and caught the defendant in the act. The victim’s cousin immediately ran back inside the house pretending that she never saw anything. The defendant gave the victim $50 and instructed her not to tell anyone.

According to the victim, the sexual abuse by her stepfather started in March of this year at their family home.

She said the defendant would tell her not to tell anyone, and he would give her $50 to remain silent. The defendant also threatened to kill her if she told anyone in the family. The victim said she didn’t tell anyone about her encounters with the defendant because she was embarrassed and afraid the defendant might kill her.

The defendant refused to make a statement.

However, when investigators transported him to the Territorial Correctional Facility (TCF), the defendant verbally stated to investigators that all the allegations against him regarding his stepdaughter are true.

The defendant further stated to investigators that he’s truly sorry for what he did and he wanted to apologize to his wife and his stepdaughter but it was too late.

He further told investigators that it was his drugs problem that caused everything and he wanted to apologize to the whole family and everyone involved for what he did.