The wife of a police officer who has been charged with corruption believes her husband is being used as a scapegoat to deflect bad publicity on the Department of Public Safety and Commissioner Lei Sonny Thompson.
Officer Faauma Malo is behind bars on bail of $5,000 and has been charged with public servant acceding to corruption for allegedly coercing money from a motorist to avoid a traffic citation.
His wife told KHJ News yesterday that the arrest was staged and she is willing to testify about it in court.
She said her husband was off duty and they were at home on Friday morning as he had Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off, and was supposed to return to work on Saturday.
But his supervisor Lt. Sala Falelua of the substation east called her husband and informed him that Deputy Commissioner Falanaipupu Taase Sagapolutele wanted him to come to work, for a Code 8.
The instructions from deputy Commissioner Falanaipupu were that Officer Malo be fully dressed in his police uniform.
Mrs Malo said the information she was relaying to KHJ News was from her husband when she visited him at the TCF.
He said when he entered the commissioner’s office, Le’i, Falana’ipupu, Deputy Commissioner Maiava and Captain Pou Supapo of the Criminal Investigations division were in the room. He said the instructions from Falanaipupu was for him to sign a form.
He asked what the form was for and he was told just to sign it.
According to the officer, Falanaipupu also asked to have him cuffed, but no one responded.
And Falanaipupu then cuffed him.
Then he was led out and at the bottom of the staircase a Samoa News reporter was there taking photos.
Mrs Malo was not clear on the charge against her husband but claims her husband’s arrest was to deflect attention on the bad press that DPS is getting form the District Court in the issuance of traffic citatrions.
She said this was all a set up and hr husband has been targeted whereas there are other cases which DPs has been investigation for some time without any action.
Officer Malo graduated from the Police Academy in June but before that he was with the Marine Patrol Division since 2012.
He and his wife have five sons.
