Man arrested after mother alleges her daughter was in a sexual relationship with him

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A man from the Independent State of Samoa, accused of having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old girl who lived in the same household, is now in custody after he was arrested last week.

The defendant, Samuelu Viliamu made his initial appearance in District Court last week.

He is charged with 5 counts including 4 counts of rape involving domestic violence and one count of sodomy involving domestic violence, all class B felonies, punishable by a term of imprisonment of not less than five nor more than fifteen years.

Bail is set at $50,000.

THE CASE

Close to midnight on Mar. 01, 2022, the Central Police Station (CPS) in Fagatogo received a call from a woman in Pago Pago to report a possible rape/ sexual assault involving a male by the name of Samuelu Viliamu and her 16-year old daughter.

Several police officers responded and met up with the mother and her daughter (victim) and later transported them to the CPS for further investigation.

The suspect was at the scene and was also transported to the CPS for an interview.

The victim is identified as 16-year-old A.F, born in 2007. The Court affidavit notes that the victim and suspect live in the same house, which is the victim’s home where the alleged crime occurred.

A.F was interviewed by investigators in the presence of her mother and she provided a verbal and written statement about what allegedly happened.

According to A.F’s statement, the night her mother found out about her relationship with Viliamu — Mar. 1st —  is the same night Viliamu persuaded her to come to his room, around 11p.m, despite her telling him no numerous times. She also told Viliamu that her mother was still not asleep and she didn’t want her parents to know what was going on between them. When she finally did go into his bedroom, Viliamu began undressing her despite her continuing to refuse, telling him she didn’t want her mother to find out that she was in his bedroom.

Viliamu didn’t listen and finally undressing her, he had sexual intercourse with her.

A.F also revealed to investigators that this was not the first time she had sex with Viliamu. She did not recall the exact dates, but according to her recollection, she counted at least four times.

It was after she had snuck out of Viliamu’s bedroom and her mother saw her and asked her where she had been that she told her mother that she had been with Viliamu in his bedroom. At that point, her mother phoned the police station for assistance.

A.F’s mother was also interviewed by investigators. According to her statement, she woke up to check on her daughter, who was sleeping on the couch in the living room, but when she came out to check, she wasn’t there, so she started checking all the bedrooms in the house.

A.F’s mother first checked in Viliamu’s bedroom by opening the door and discovered the suspect sitting on the bedside naked, and she asked him if he had seen her daughter, but he replied no. She continued to search the other bedrooms inside the house, until she saw her daughter coming out from the other side of the house where she had initially started to look for her.

She then asked her daughter where she had been and that’s when her daughter told her that she had been with Viliamu inside his bedroom. When she asked what she had been doing inside Viliamu’s bedroom, her daughter told her about Viliamu persuading her to go inside his bedroom to discuss something important.

The victim’s mother immediately notified her husband about the situation and then she contacted the police station for assistance.

The daughter and her mother were later transported to the LBJ OBGYN Clinic for a medical assessment of the victim.

Around 3 a.m. on Mar. 2, Viliamu was Mirandized and he refused to make a statement about what had happened.

He was later transported to the Territorial Correctional Facility (TCF) to be confined for 48 hours in order for an arrest warrant to be processed.

The two officers who processed Viliamu before he was transported to the TCF then informed investigators about a verbal confession he allegedly had given them earlier, confessing that he had had sex with the victim yesterday; however, he denied the allegation when he was questioned later by investigators about his confession.

Police Detective Sosene Faiai was assigned to further investigate the matter.

On the same morning of Mar. 2nd around 8:30a.m, Det. Faiai, along with another police detective proceeded to the TCF and met with Viliamu where he was again Mirandized and at that time he agreed to waive his rights and make a statement on what happened. He provided verbal and written statements of what happened.

According to Viliamu, he flew from the Independent State of Samoa in December of 2019 and moved in with the family. (The suspect did not reveal any connection to the victim’s family.)

When he first arrived and stayed with the family, everything went smoothly, however, a few months later, things changed around February 2020, after he asked A.F to have a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship and she agreed.

Throughout the whole year of 2020, they didn’t have a sexual relationship — they just talked and had fun.

It was in the middle of the month of February 2021 when this changed and they began having sexual intercourse. They had sex twice that month.

Viliamu recalled what happened during their first encounter, stating that he didn’t force the victim to come into his bedroom nor to have sex with him. It was the victim who agreed to come to him because she enjoyed what he was doing to her.

According to Viliamu, the third incident happened on the first week of January 2022, and this time he initiated it by sneaking into A.F’s bedroom and having sex with her.

For the recent incident, Viliamu confirmed A.F’s description of what occurred — the persuasion in the living room, despite her refusal, and her final agreement to go to his bedroom, where they had sex. He also noted how the mother was looking for A.F and that’s when she snuck out of his bedroom.

He further verified that A.F’s mother opened his bedroom door where she discovered him sitting naked on the bed. A.F’s mother then asked him if he had seen her daughter, but he told her that he had not.