Man accused of raping his stepdaughter held without bail

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A stepfather from Samoa accused of raping and sexually abusing his 16-year-old stepdaughter is now in custody after he was arrested last month pursuant to an arrest warrant from the court. Illegal drugs were discovered in the defendant’s possession during the arrest.

The government claims that the alleged sexual abuse incident began in April of this year. To protect the identity of the minor victim Samoa News is withholding the defendant’s name.

(The defendant is not new to the court system. He has previous convictions including assault, sexual abuse and violating local drug laws.)

The defendant made his initial appearance in Court last month.

The government has filed two separate cases against him.

In the first case, the defendant is charged with three counts of rape; three counts of sodomy; and three counts of first-degree sexual abuse, all felonies. He is also facing two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, a class A misdemeanor.

In the second case, the defendant is charged with one count of unlawful possession of methamphetamine (meth), a felony.

Due to the seriousness of the allegation against the defendant, the court decided to held the defendant in custody without bail.

THE ALLEGATION

It was the victim’s aunt who reported the alleged incident to police, which resulted in the arrest of the defendant in this matter.

Investigators interviewed several members of the victim’s family including the victim, her aunts, cousins, neighbor and grandmother. The victim’s mother was off-island during the time of the alleged incident, according to the government’s case.

Investigators first interviewed one of the victim’s aunts regarding the allegation. According to the aunt’s statement to the investigator, the matter was reported to her by her two daughters (victim’s cousins) who stated to her that they found the suspect with the victim inside the bedroom holding hands together on the night of a young cousin’s 1st birthday party, which was Apr. 20, 2022.

The victim’s aunt questioned the suspect regarding the alleged incident, but the suspect strongly denied the accusation.

However, according to the aunt’s statement, after she received the same report from her daughters again, that’s when she decided to call her sister (victim’s mother) who is off-island, about the situation.

When questioned by investigators, the victim’s cousins confirmed the incident that took place around 10:30p.m on the night of her baby cousin’s 1st birthday party while the family was all gathered at the house for the party.

The victim’s cousins told investigators that the suspect never said anything to them. He just stared at them for seconds before he left the room while the victim was still standing at the side of the bed. They also smelled a strong odor of alcohol in the room after the suspect left.

According to the aunt who reported the matter to police, this is not the first time the news about alleged incidents involving the suspect had reached her.

When the incident first was reported to her on the night of the birthday party, she didn’t believe it. However, the information regarding the alleged sexual abuse alerted her and that’s when she warned the suspect not to come near her residence.

She said she decided to call police when the suspect showed up at her home that week, because it appeared that he didn’t care about what happened to his stepdaughter.

The aunt also told investigators that she also contacted her sister (suspect’s wife) who is off-island to inform her about the situation. Her sister told her to give her time to speak to her husband (suspect).

One month later, her sister called her from off-island and said she needed more time to discuss things with her husband (defendant) and the witness agreed.

However in the beginning of the month of August, her sister (victim’s mother) contacted her and told her to inform the police about the incident.

Investigators also interviewed the victim’s 3rd aunt regarding the incident.

According to the 3rd aunt’s statement to police, it was early April of this year that one of her nephews caught the defendant sexually abusing the victim at the back of the family’s guest house.

The woman said her nephew told her what happened and when she confronted the suspect that same evening, he allegedly admitted to it and immediately apologized for his actions. He then begged for her forgiveness saying he’s remorseful for what he did. She further stated that prior to the April incident, the suspect was caught multiple times inside the victim’s room while the victim was sleeping.

According to the woman, there were two other incidents in May of this year, where one of her nieces found the suspect in the victim’s room massaging the victim’s back while the victim was sleeping. When the niece intervened and told him to leave, the suspect peacefully left the room. The suspect was heavily intoxicated.

When questioned by police, the victim confirmed everything her 3 aunts told authorities including that the sexual abuse started in April of this year, with the last encounter being in July of this year, and described by the victim as an alleged rape.

The victim told police she tried to push the defendant off, telling him he was hurting her but he continued to hold her down and performed sexual acts on her.

Moments later, the victim’s female cousin walked in and caught the defendant in the act. The victim’s cousin immediately ran back inside the house pretending that she never saw anything. The defendant gave the victim $50 and instructed her not to tell anyone.

According to the victim, the sexual abuse by her stepfather started in March of this year at their family home.

On separate occasions, according to the victim, the defendant would catch her outside of the house and touch her body in a sexual manner.

 She said the defendant would tell her not to tell anyone, and he would give her $50 to remain silent. The defendant also threatened to kill her if she told anyone in the family. The victim said she didn’t tell anyone about her encounters with the defendant because she was embarrassed and afraid the defendant might kill her.

 After interviewing several witnesses, police went to the home of a friend of the suspect in Kokoland and apprehended the suspect, and he was taken to the police station for questioning.

Before he was taken to the Tafuna Police Substation (TPS) for questioning, the defendant was patted down and police discovered a baggie containing a white crystalline substance and a glass pipe also containing a white crystalline substance.

The white crystalline substance was tested and the result was positive for meth.

The defendant was Mirandized and he refused to make a statement. However, when investigators transported him to the Territorial Correctional Facility (TCF), the defendant verbally stated to investigators that all the allegations against him regarding his stepdaughter are true.

The defendant further stated to investigators that he’s truly sorry for what he did and he wanted to apologize to his wife and his stepdaughter but it was too late. He further told investigators that it was his drugs problem that caused everything and he wanted to apologize to the whole family and everyone involved for what he did.