Alleged domestic abuse case draws hefty bail for defendant

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A woman walked into the Tafuna Police Substation on October 10, 2023 asking for assistance to remove herself and her 1-year old child from her husband and his family’s residence in Taputimu. The victim further revealed that she was experiencing a cycle of abuse within her marriage. 

According to the victim, on October 9, 2023 at 4:00 PM, she was hanging out at a family volleyball game when her husband, identified as Sisifagu’a Tuiuli, slapped her on the face, which resulted in her falling on the ground. The victim states after being slapped, she had a hard time getting up because she is 7-months pregnant with their second child. 

Allegedly the defendant punched her several more times while she was still on the ground. Family members then intervened, which made him angrier and in retaliation, turned to their 1-year-old son standing nearby and slapped him twice. 

The victim told officers after the incident, she was afraid to go back home because the defendant would still be furious with her. The victim then went over to neighbor’s house where relatives of her husband lived, and Tuiuli approached her again as she was sitting in the open garage of the neighbor’s house and demanded she go home with him, but she refused.

According to the report, Tuiuli then grabbed a stone used for grinding koko-samoa and struck her with it. 

The victim said in the report that Tuiuli was aiming for her head, but she raised her right hand and blocked the rock from hitting her head, despite still feeling pain on her hand. She said she then made her way into the neighbor’s house to escape from Tuiuli. Later on in the evening, the victim returned in fear that Tuiuli would beat her up again for not obeying his demands. 

In the morning that followed, the victim attests that she begged Tuiuli’s parents for permission to allow her to leave with their son, but Tuiuli protested heavily against it. She then left their residence in Taputimu and went to her family in Amanave for help.

The victim also told officers that the suspect had been assaulting her since their first child turned a month old, the victim specified that the date was April 2022. It was during that time, the suspect stopped by her parent’s house to pick up the victim and their month old child at the time. 

The victim said that the cause of the first physical assault on her was because the suspect was angry at the victim’s mother for berating him, and then took his anger out on her and beat her up near the car while she was holding their infant son. The victim says she was slapped and punched, and sustained bruises on her body. 

The victim relayed to officers that several incidents since then have occurred — from January to September of this year to now. 

After interviewing the victim, officers made their way to Tuiuli's place of work, where he was informed of the investigation.

The suspect voluntarily provided a written statement of his account of the story. The suspect told officers that on October 9, he told his wife to watch their son while he played volleyball. While playing, he noticed that his son was not around the area, but found him walking near the road. 

He told officers he then slapped his son’s hand and leg and told him not to go near the road. According to the report, Tuiuli said that he then scolded the victim (his wife) for not watching their son, which resulted in her slapping his face. He then returned a slap to his wife’s body, but denied beating her up.

When asked about the situation in April 2022, Tuiuli told officers that he “assaulted the victim because her mother told him to do so.” The suspect denied other physical incident claims by the victim.

Two witnesses interviewed by the DPS officers confirmed that Tuiuli did assault the victim, and that they also intervened by preventing Tuiuli from grabbing a piece of lumber to assault the victim. The witnesses also confirmed that Tuiuli assaulted the victim with the cocoa bean grinding stone.

Social Services was called and the victim and her son were placed into the care of their family in Amanave. 

Tuiuli, who is employed at the Tafuna Correctional Facility, was arrested and Mirandized that day and was processed and booked for confinement at TCF for 48 hours.

Charges laid before the defendant were one count of assault in the second degree and four counts of assault in the third degree. 

Bail for Tuiuli was set at $20,000.