Fed court grants Barlow’s request to dismiss complaint against Interior

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The federal court in Washington D.C. has granted a request by former Territorial Correctional Facility (TCF) inmate, James Glenn Barlow to dismiss without prejudice his complaint against the US Secretary of Interior over his 2014 wrongful conviction in the High Court of American Samoa over alleged sexual acts with three-teenagers.

US District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan signed on Jan. 19, 2021, Barlow’s “verified stipulation of dismissal” motion filed on Jan. 16th by his US based attorney, Bentley Adams III, who worked in the territory several years ago.

There were details in federal court records for the reason behind Barlow’s request, but a statement from his attorney to Samoa News two weeks ago states in part that the decision to file the dismissal was based on a number of reasons. Among them, is that Barlow is encouraged by the recent elections and looks forward to communicating directly with the new Secretary of the Interior and her staff about his case. Barlow is also cautiously optimistic about the new governor in American Samoa. (See Samoa News edition Jan. 19th for details.)

The now 73-year old Barlow was sentenced in 2014 by the High Court of American Samoa to serve a 24-year jail term at TCF for a conviction in a case involving three male juveniles. In 2019 he filed a habeas corpus petition — first with the federal court in Honolulu and later transferred to the federal court in Washington D.C — challenging his detention in American Samoa.

After serving one-third of his prison term — as of July 1, 2020 — American Samoa Parole Board granted Barlow’s parole on Oct. 20 and he departed the territory on Oct. 26th on the medical charter heading to Honolulu and is now living in California.

Barlow had sought a pardon from former Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga, but no action was taken before Lolo left office.