Update: 4 Juvie Center officers charged in District Court

Four Public Safety officers assigned to Juvenile Detention Center (JDC) in Tafuna have been charged with various crimes, but specific charges and details of allegations against the officers remain under wraps, with District Court Judge Fiti A. Sunia ordering staff not to release court documents.

However, a report last November by the JDC supervisor, provided details of alleged “illegal activities” including drugs at the center involving the four officers now charged. The four officers are also identified by name in the report, which also alleges an “epidemic of corruption” at the JDC.

The four officers — Junior Utuga, Alofagia Letuli, Okesene Alo, and Olafou Wilson — were arrested last week Thursday, and appeared the following morning in District Court, for their initial appearance. Relatives of the defendants were in the packed courtroom.

Each defendant waived formal public reading of the charges — a common practice for these hearings — and acknowledged through their attorneys — that they understand the charges.

After court proceedings, Samoa News requested District Court staff for copies of the charging documents, which specifies each count against a defendant, as well as the affidavit that details alleged crimes to support the charges. However, court staff said that Sunia had ordered them not to release the documents, because they contain names of juveniles.

Samoa News, along with KHJ News, are the usual news media that covers court proceedings and it has been a long standing practice of the two news organizations that names of juveniles are not identified or released, unless a juvenile — for example — ends up being charged as an adult. Additionally, court proceedings in juvenile cases are closed to the public.

A request was made to Attorney General Talauega Eleasalo Ale for the Attorney General’s Office to release just the specific charges against each defendant, but not details in the affidavit.

Talauega, however, told Samoa News last Friday afternoon that “unfortunately, we cannot disclose these documents for the same reasons” — referring to the court staff’s statement that the documents contain names of juveniles. “In due course the information will become available,” he said.

Samoa News understands that the charges against the four officers stem from a police investigation into JDC late last year, when then Police Commissioner Save Liuato Tuitele was in office and continued under the leadership of the new Police Commissioner, Le’i Sonny Thompson.

Responding to Samoa News questions, Le’i confirmed yesterday that these officers “were arrested as part of the police investigation early last year on allegations leading to misconduct” at JDC, “in which I continued [the investigation].”

As to the employment status of defendants, Le’i said these officers were “on paid leave”.

Without the charging court documents, Samoa News isn’t able to confirm, if specific charges resulting from the police investigation, stem from the 7-page report dated Nov. 14, 2016 from the JDC supervisor, Mara Brown, to Save. 

The ‘Drug Incidents in Juvenile Detention Center by On-Duty Officers’ report, obtained by Samoa News in late February this year from ASG sources, details allegations against the four defendants for “illegal activities prohibited by law.”

Names of the officers, now being charged in court, are listed on the first page of the report, which also explained in detail the role of officers in the illegal activities, as well as interviews with juveniles conducted by the supervisor. It’s also alleged in the report that former juvenile detainees returned to the Center to allegedly conduct illegal activities.

Besides drug activities, one juvenile detainee recalled that there were nights that one of the officers allegedly involved two other detainees in stealing gasoline from cars at the airport parking lot, by using a hose to suck gas from parked cars at the airport to an empty canister tank, which had been taken to the airport. Upon returning to the center, the gasoline was then poured into the officer’s car.

Another juvenile detainee is quoted in the report saying, “He has been smoking ice for approximately 5 months at the Center.” The detainee claimed that one of the officers “brought in ice a lot of times that he lost count. [sic].”

The detainee also alleges that “a lot of unknown vehicles have been coming in the [JDC] compound dropping off the ice” when the four accused officers are on night watch.

The report alleges that one of the officers would make a detainee call the detainee’s family to get money to buy drugs. To substantiate the allegation, the supervisor contacted the detainee’s relative who confirmed the claim.

The report provided 17 specific points of concern raised by the supervisor, including that the juveniles were allegedly “coerced” by one of the officers to “call friends and family members in the late hours of the night to get money to buy the ‘ice drugs’.”

“Officers bribed and steal from juveniles’ parents to bring money in to buy for the needs of juveniles when it was intended to buy the drugs,” said another point of concern in the report. Additionally, “Officers allowed juveniles to watch x-rated movies unsupervised.”

Furthermore, an officer “permitted and encouraged a male and female juvenile to be locked together in one cell to engage in sex.”

The report further alleges that the officers smoke forbidden substances and drink alcohol beverages inside the Center with other juveniles.

“The current crisis in the center is an ‘epidemic of corruption’,” the supervisor wrote in the report, and noted that termination of the officers involved “would not be enough to stop corruption” at JDC and recommended not only termination but also prosecution of the four officers as well as prosecution of juveniles who were allegedly involved in breaking the law.

The JDC’s supervisor report was the subject of two Samoan language stories published in the Lali section of Samoa News edition on Feb. 23 and Feb. 24.

At the time, a senior police official said the four officers had been placed on leave but no other information was available at the time and other ASG officials could only confirm that an investigation was near completion with charges to be filed soon. The Samoan language stories didn’t identify by name the now charged four officers nor name any juvenile detainee or former detainees, because they are under the age of 18.

At last Friday’s initial appearance hearing, Alo was represented by private attorney Sharron Rancourt, while the rest of the defendants were represented by assistant public defender Mathoni McCormick, while prosecuting the case was assistant attorney general Woodrow Pengelly.

For Utuga, the defense requested and Sunia reduced bail from $2,000 to $1,000. Based on what Pengelly said in court, when he argued against bail reduction, Utuga is charged with “several Class A misdemeanors” counts and the defendant entered a not guilty plea with a pre trial conference set for Apr. 20.

Defense attorneys all noted in their arguments to reduce bail that the four defendants have worked at DPS for a long time, have no prior criminal record, and have strong family ties in the community.

For Alo, whose bail is set at $200,000, Rancourt noted that although there are a lot of serious charges against her client, she sought bail reduction down to $75,000. However, Pengelly argued against it, saying that the alleged offenses by the defendant occurred over a “couple of months” and that the defendant is a flight risk.

Pengelly gave similar arguments in opposing the $75,000 bail set for Wilson and $50,000 set for Letuli. Sunia agreed with Pengelly who told the court that the government is looking at calling one or two witnesses during preliminary examinations for Alo, Wilson and Letuli.

Preliminary examination (PX) hearing for Letuli is Apr. 5, Wilson on Apr. 6, and Alo on Apr. 7.

If all four defendants are able to post bail, Sunia has set several conditions, which include that they are prohibited from consuming alcohol or illegal drugs and are subject to random testing, and they must also turn in all travel documents as they are prohibited from leaving the territory while their cases are pending in court.

They were also ordered by the court to “stay away” from victims and government witnesses and make no direct or indirect contact with them.