Disturbance call leads to assault charges

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — On July 2, 2025, a concerned neighbor contacted the Leone Police Substation (LPS) and reported an alleged assault involving his neighbor.

The suspect was later apprehended and charged with:

Count 1: Assault in the Third Degree (DV), a class A misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for up to one year, a fine of $1,000, or both imprisonment and fine; and,

Count 2: Private Peace Disturbance (DV), a class C misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for up to fifteen days, a fine of $300, or both.

The defendant’s bail was set at $500.

(Samoa News has withheld the names of those involved to protect the identity of the victim in this case.)

Court records revealed that on July 2nd, around 11:27 a.m., a neighbor (later identified as the reporter) called the LPS and requested police assistance regarding a disturbance within their neighborhood. Authorities were dispatched to the area and met up with the reporter.

According to the reporter, the victim was screaming and yelling at her parents. The victim alleged that her father raped her and got her pregnant. He asked the victim if she needed any help and the victim stated that she needs help but she’s scared of her parents. The victim also told him that she fears for her younger sisters whereas he asked the victim to go with him so that his mother can get her the help she needed.

On their way to his mother’s house and upon hearing what the victim was saying, he decided to contact the LPS to report the said matter.

Police officers proceeded to serve the call and upon arrival they interviewed the victim at the reporter’s residence.

According to the victim, she and her nephews were hanging out inside a guest house (faleo’o) and drinking beer during curfew time around 10:00 p.m. She said she saw her father walking towards where she was and that’s when she pretended to head home. However, her father asked her who she was with and she told him it was her nephews. Her father demanded that she head home.

As she was headed home, one of her nephews was fixing his sarong (ie lavalava) and her father saw it and asked her why he was fixing his sarong. Moreover, the victim stated that her father then asked her nephew why he was fixing his sarong and he told him that he was using it to cover the speaker’s light because it was bright. The suspect also asked about the other nephew which got him angry and he grabbed the speaker and attempted to throw it at the other nephew.

The victim explained that she stepped in with her hand forward in an attempt to cover her nephew whereas the speaker hit her index finger. At that time, her nephews ran away from the scene.

Furthermore, the victim stated that she pushed the suspect and yelled at him in Samoan and told him to stop being suspicious of her. However, the suspect tried to grab her hair but missed and ended up scratching her face.

At that time, their village mayor’s brother came and tried to calm them down but she continued to scream furiously that she was tired. The investigation later revealed that the victim stated she acted the way she did because she had been sexually abused by her father.

The officers asked the victim to clarify what she meant about being sexually abused and the victim claimed that in June 2025, her father asked her to have sex with him and she told him no. After telling him no, the victim claimed that her father threatened that if she didn't do what he wanted her to do, he was going to do it to her younger sisters. As a result, she agreed to it in order to protect her little sisters.

The victim was informed by authorities that she would be taken into the LPS for further investigation and she agreed. Authorities proceeded to locate the suspect nearby the reporter’s house.

Upon arrival at the suspect’s house, officers met up with the suspect, apprehended him, and transported him to the LPS for questioning.

Upon arrival at the station, the suspect was Mirandized to which he understood and offered a verbal statement.

The suspect stated that “he was curious of who the victim was with during curfew time.” He admitted that he was wrong and shouldn’t have beaten up the victim. He stated that “he should’ve calmed down so that nothing would happen”.

He claimed that he wasn’t in his right state of mind when he saw his daughter hanging out with the guys, and grabbed the speaker and threw it at one of the boys not knowing that his daughter would jump in to protect him and it hit her instead. The suspect also admitted that he tried to grab the victim by her hair but missed causing him to scratch her face.

The suspect was booked and confined at the Tafuna Correctional Facility to await the next available sitting of the District Court.

Authorities contacted the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) regarding information that was later revealed during the investigation involving the suspect who is the victim’s biological father. Reports indicated that the suspect has been sexually abusing the victim during the past years. Information also surfaced that the victim gave birth to the suspect’s child when she was 15 years old. The matter was later transferred to the CID detectives for further investigation.

The affidavit does not state any information regarding the age of the victim during the recent incident.