Samoan man who wrongfully spent over 10 years in prison files lawsuit

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A Samoan man, who spent just over 10-years in prison, and whose murder conviction was overturned by Hawaii’s highest court, has filed a civil rights lawsuit at the federal court in Honolulu against the Honolulu Police Department  (HPD) as well as current and former senior HPD officers, for violation of his civil rights.

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff, Iosefa Pasene, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison and he spent over ten and half years imprisoned “for a crime that he did not commit” — which is the Mar. 28, 2009 murder of Joseph Peneueta.

The suit claims that Pasene’s wrongful conviction was the result of serious misconduct by HPD officers investigating the Peneueta shooting. The complaint alleges that HPD defendants manipulated witnesses — Richard Tagataese, Gabriel Sakaria and Cedro Muna — into misidentifying Pasene as the shooter.

“Defendants then hid the blatantly improper means they used to obtain the misidentification, which was only uncovered through a remarkable coincidence after Mr. Pasene’s wrongful conviction,” the suit further alleges.

It also claims that no physical or forensic evidence incriminated Pasene, because he always said truthfully that he was innocent. The sole evidence incriminating him was the alleged misidentification unlawfully procured by the HPD defendants.

According to the suit, Pasene’s conviction was reversed by the Hawaii Supreme Court on Apr. 22, 2019. Then the Honolulu First Circuit Court dismissed the case with prejudice on Nov. 5 of the same year and he was released from prison Nov. 6.

At the time of his arrest, Pasene was a young father of a five-month-old daughter. As a result of his wrongful conviction and just over 10-years in prison, Pasene “was torn away from his family,” according to the complaint.

Honolulu-based Hawaii News Now reported in April 2019 about Pasene’s conviction being overturned by the Hawaii Supreme Court for a gang-related murder in 2009, because of prosecutorial misconduct.

Pasene was convicted after three trials of killing rival gang member, Peneueta in Chinatown in March 2009. Witnesses said Pasene and another man pulled up in an SUV and shot Peneueta multiple times. The second suspect was acquitted in the second trial, according to the news report.

Pasene had testified in trial that witnesses misidentified him because he looked and dressed similarly to the real shooter. The first two trials ended with juries deadlocked on Pasene.

Other Honolulu news outlets also reported at the time that the shooting was gang-related.

According to federal court documents, Pasene’s lawsuit centers on five counts against HPD defendants including deprivation of liberty without due process of law and violation of right to a fair trial under the Fourteenth Amendment; and malicious prosecution in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.

Plaintiff requests a jury trial on each of his claims and didn’t specify monetary compensation. He does request the court award compensatory and punitive damages to plaintiff and against the defendants — who are expected to file in the coming days an official response to the lawsuit.

Documents also show that Pasene resides in San Francisco and represents himself at the time the lawsuit was filed. Recently he filed a motion for a court-appointed legal counsel.

Late last week, US Magistrate Judge Kenneth J. Mansfield issued a court order “denying without prejudice” the plaintiff’s motion, saying that there “are no exceptional circumstances at this juncture to support Plaintiff’s request for appointment of counsel.”

“Plaintiff has demonstrated that he can articulate his claims pro se (representing himself) through an organized and cogent complaint, in light of the complexity of his claims,” the judge said.

Court records shows that a status hearing in the case is set for Mar. 21.