The High Court has denied a motion by Public Defender Douglas Fiaui to withdraw as an appointed counsel for defendant Olafou Wilson, one of the guards of the Tafuna Juvenile Detention Center, accused of several crimes in the performance of his duties as a guard at the Juvenile Detention Center
At the defendant’s pre-trial conference in early June, Fiaui told the court that he would reassign the case within his office but noted that there might be other conflicts.
The on June 30th, Assistant Public Defender Michael White filed the same withdrawal motion as Counsel Fiaui, the only deviation being that Counsel White’s alleged conflicts are with victims #2, 3, 5 and 6 of the case.
The court has determined that the defense counsel’s arguments fall far short of proving that a conflict is indicated.
The court saw no concurrent conflict of interest.
Rather it found that the defense counsels’ motions merely state that they represented the juvenile victims in unrelated, previous cases which ended when the victims began their stays at the JDC.
This said the court is not applicable to the conflict of interest claim.
Additionally the defense counsels’ showing has not convince the court that their previous representations of the juvenile victims will prejudice their ability to provide effective assistance of counsel to the defendants..
Wilson is charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, two counts of unlawful possession of a controlled substance namely methamphetamine, two counts of stealing, three counts of aiding escape of a prisoner and three counts of permitting escape.
