Trial moved for Samoan man in fed passport case

Honolulu, HAWAII — A Samoan man, charged by federal indictment with one count of false statement in a passport application, faces possible serious collateral consequences if found guilty of the charged offense, according to the defense in court filings early this week.

Vai Salamasina Taula Fetuli — aka, “Vai Doc Taula” — is charged at the federal court in Honolulu and accused of willfully and knowingly making false statements on an application for a passport with the purpose to induce and secure for his own use the issuance of a passport, contrary to the federal laws regulating the issuance of passports.

Fetuli’s trial was initially set for September this year, but was later continued to January next year. However, the defense requested and the court approved a new trial date of June, 27, 2022.

In court filing, Assistant Federal Defender, Jacquelyn T. Esser, explained the reason behind the motion for a new trial date, saying that the prosecutor and defense have been working on coming to a pretrial resolution of this case.

“However, Mr. Fetuli faces possible serious collateral consequences if found guilty of the charged offense and needs additional time beyond the current trial date to investigate and mitigate those concerns,” Esser informed the court on Monday this week.

According to the defense counsel, Fetuli is currently seeking counsel outside this jurisdiction to help mitigate these possible collateral consequences.

“Once counsel is obtained, the process to mitigate these collateral consequences will likely take several months,” she said, adding that the prosecution has no objection to continuance of trial.

Because this additional time is needed to investigate and adequately prepare, the time period from the date of the continuance to the new trial date would be excluded from computation under the Speedy Trial Act, according to the defense filings.

U.S District Court Judge Jill A. Otake, granted the motion on Tuesday this week and set the new trial date as well as dates to file pretrial motions and hearings.

The indictment alleges that the defendant, on Sept. 21, 2020 in Hawaii, had stated in the passport application that his name was “Vai Doc Taula”, along with his birthday —  for which the year is ‘exed’ out in the indictment — and that he was born in Los Angles.

Furthermore, the defendant claims that his parents were each a “U.S. Citizen” which statement he knew was false, the indictment said, but provided no other information on where the defendant or his parents were born.

Fetuli is released on an unsecured bond of $25,000 along with several conditions.