Former PD White tells the court, “I apologize, but I can’t handle it”

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Acting Associate Justice Elvis P. Patea will issue his decision on the Order to Show Cause (OSC) hearing concerning former Public Defender, Michael White, which was held yesterday morning in court room #1 on why Mr. White shouldn’t be held in contempt of court for not fulfilling his duties as an officer of the court.

White, 63, appeared in court with his defense attorney, Marcellus Talaimalo Uiagalelei.

After an evidentiary hearing in High Court yesterday morning, Patea informed both parties that the court would issue its decision at 8:30a.m. this morning, Thursday, July 7.

Associate Judges, Suapaia J. Pereira, Muasau T. Tofili and Faamausili Poumele assisted Patea on the bench.

White and his attorney were in court when it convened at 8:30a.m, yesterday.

Patea informed both parties that on Tuesday, July 5, the court had continued all of its criminal calendar because there was no defense attorney to represent all defendants during their scheduled hearings for that day.

According to the court, White was the attorney on record and he was supposed to be in court to represent his clients. However, after he failed to appear, the court issued an OSC as to why White shouldn’t be held in contempt of court for not fulfilling his duties as an officer of the court.

Attorney for the respondent, Uiagalelei informed the court that he had received a copy of the OSC, and an attached court affidavit regarding the case.

Uiagalelei further informed the court that they were ready to proceed with an evidentiary hearing. The court agreed and White was called to the witness stand to testify on why he failed to appear in court earlier this week.

According to his testimony, White told the court that his last day of employment with the American Samoa Government (ASG) was last Friday, July 1. He said that he had worked for the PD’s office for 11 years — including 7 years as an Assistant Public Defender (APD) and 4 years as the head of the Public Defender’s Office.

When he ended his employment with the ASG last Friday, White said that he was the only attorney at the PD’s office.

In March of this year, Ryan Anderson, the assistant public defender had left the office and the island and according to White, he took over the office by himself where he handled over 850 cases, most of these cases being criminal cases.

White explained that on June 30, he submitted his resignation letter to the Governor’s office while the Governor was off-island at the time and he was informed by staff members that his resignation letter would be handed over to the Governor once he arrived back on island last week.

When asked why he resigned from his post, White explained that with the number of cases he had to handle, he believed that he was not able to provide the appropriate defense for all.

“I feel that I’m no longer being able to handle these cases. It was so overwhelming that I could not function,” White told the court.

He said he had not had a good night’s sleep for over a month worrying about these people and the services they deserve.

According to White, he reached out to everyone he knew to get help for the PD’s office. He tried to meet with the Governor but that didn’t work out. He then met up with the Lt. Governor and he explained the whole situation to him.

The Lt. Governor’s response, according to White was to wait for 4 to 5 months for an answer to his request.

“I told the Lt. Governor that I can’t wait that long,” White said.

He said there are a lot of things he needed to consider while facing the problem of work overload at the office. He needed to consider his health, his family and especially his 6-year-old daughter.

There came a time when he sat down and evaluated the situation and asked himself the question, “Is this job worth my life? I have a family that I need to take care and I also have a 6-year-old daughter that really needs me everyday. Who is going to care for my family if something happens to me. The answer is no one.”

White recalled an incident that happened a month ago where he took two weeks off of due to his health problems. He has high blood pressure and he needs a time off to regroup himself and get a good rest at home.

Before that, since October 2020, he said he had only taken one day off from work due to the vast work load at the office.

“As a PD, you have to care about the people and love them. I know I couldn’t do the job and offer the people the right service they deserve,” White said.

Ever since he submitted his resignation letter, he hasn’t heard any word from Gov. Lemanu Peleti Mauga whether he accepted his letter or not. There was also no one from the Governor’s office who notified him about anything. The only thing he noticed was that the PD position is now advertised.

Friday afternoon after his District Court calendar, White said he went to see Chief Justice Michael Kruse to inform him about his resignation letter. Kruse was not available at the time.

He also wanted to speak to Patea but he was told that Patea was also not available to meet with him.

Finally, he was able to meet up with Associate Justice Fiti Sunia and he informed Sunia about his resignation letter and the reason behind his decision to resign from his post.

White said Sunia assured him that he would notify District Court Judge Gwen Tauiliili-Langkilde about the situation. He also said he would notify other Judges about the issue.

As of Tuesday this week, White said he is no longer the public defender.

Patea made it clear to White that when the court called its calendar on Tuesday this week for all the cases scheduled for hearings, “You were the attorney of record.”

White responded that the PD’s office represented these people, not him as an individual.

Patea asked White who was the PD when the former assistance PD Anderson left the office in March of this year. White replied, “I was the only attorney at the office.”

When asked whether he came to court to withdraw as the attorney of record, White said he spoke to Sunia about his situation. He further stated that the entity — Public Defender’s Office — represented the people, not him as an individual.

“Who took the oath before the Chief Justice, the entity or the individual,” Patea asked.

White replied, “Me as an attorney.”

In conclusion, defense attorney Uiagalelei said that for his many years in practice, this is his first time he has seen the PD’s office left without an attorney.

Uiagalelei said his client submitted his letter to his boss last week and as of this Tuesday, White was no longer a public defender and he can’t just show up in court and represent these people as an individual. Uiagalelei believes that there is no reason why his client should be held accountable in this case.

“What about his duties as an officer of the court,” Patea fired back.

Uiagalelei said that when White took the oath, he took it as an individual but when he became an officer of the court, he’s a public defender.

“White was appointed to represent people as a public defender. Yesterday (Tuesday this week), he was not a public defender,” Uiagalelei told the court.

“So he terminated his own employment and we don’t know whether it was accepted or not?” Patea asked.

He said that White should have shown up in court that morning and said, “sorry, I’m no longer a public defender”.

The government’s attorney said White was the attorney of record and he’s been an attorney for many years — so he familiar with the process.

Before the court recessed to deliberate on its decision, Uiagalelei informed the court that his client wanted to say something.

White, who was in tears, told the court that he didn’t want to end his career like this and he wanted the court to know that he was overwhelmed and he can’t perform the service to the people.

“I apologize, but I can’t handle it,” White said in tears.

He told the court that he was under the impression that Sunia would notify the court about his situation, but he was wrong.

White said that there were times that he was tempted to commit suicide to relieve himself.

He said he spoke to many people including the Lt. Governor about the help the PD’s office needed but it appeared that they just don’t care.

White apologized to the court, especially to all of his clients for what happened.

“I did my very best I could to help the people but nobody listened — they just don’t care. Please, accept my apology,” White concluded.

After a brief recess, Patea said that matter before the court is not easy. All criminal matters scheduled by the court will be rescheduled and continued, and this affected the function of the court.

He said that the court would look at ways to solve the problem.

The court took the case under advisement and the decision will be announced this morning at 8:30a.m.