Man accused of attempting to molest 7-year-old girl

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A man accused of the attempted molestation of a 7-year-old girl is now in custody after being arrested last week.

Lucky Faalavelave made his initial appearance in Court last month.

He is charged with one count of attempted child molesting and one count of attempted sodomy, both class B felonies, punishable by term of imprisonment for five (5) to fifteen (15) years.

Bail is set at $30,000.

Faalavelave waived his right to a preliminary examination last week and he’s scheduled to appear in High Court this morning for arraignment.

THE CASE

Investigation disclosed that on the afternoon of Mar. 13, 2022, the Tafuna Police Substation (TPS) received a call regarding a possible sexual abuse case. Several police officers responded to the call and met up with the reporter at her residence.

According to the reporter, the defendant, Lucky Faalavelave endangered the life of her seven year old daughter while she was sleeping with her grandmother in the living room.

According to the reporter, who is also the victim’s mother, when she heard her daughter crying and telling her grandmother what the defendant had done to her, Faalavelave immediately left the house and fled from the scene.

The victim and her mother were transported to the TPS for further investigation.

The victim was interviewed in the presence of her mother.

When questioned by officers, the victim said she was sleeping with her grandmother in the living room who had come to bed later and she had her clothes on and was wearing pants.

She woke up to check on her grandmother and saw the defendant standing right in front of her and he started kissing her body and allegedly touched her inappropriately, so she got up and walked into her parents’ bedroom.

Two days later on Mar. 15, investigators interviewed the grandmother regarding the alleged incident.

According to the grandmother, she saw the defendant standing next to the couch, hiding when he saw her moving around in bed.

The grandmother verbally stated that when she was falling asleep she saw her granddaughter go into her parents’ bedroom. Afterwards, about 20 minutes later, she saw a person was hiding behind the couch and he walked right next to her bed and it was the defendant, he didn’t know that she was awake. She got up to go use the restroom and saw her granddaughter’s clothes on the floor next to the couch where she was sleeping.

The grandmother knocked on the bedroom door and asked her granddaughter to come outside. She asked her if the defendant did something to her and that’s when her granddaughter started crying and told her what happened.

Officers tried to locate the defendant around the area and he was nowhere to be found. Officers visited his workplace and residence but he was not there. Officers received information that the defendant had been seen on Aunu’u.