Trial of former TCF Watch Commander begins

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The jury trial of a former watch commanders at the Territorial Correctional Facility Mosese Lomu got underway yesterday morning.

Lomu is charged with one count of criminal fraud and one count of tampering with a witness involving inmate Manu Lefatia.

He’s alleged to have covered up Lefatia’s escape from the Territorial Correctional Facility on August 12, 2018 during which the inmate shot another man in Leone.

He’s also accused of trying to get one of the officers who was on duty the early morning that Lefatia left his cell to change the log book to reflect that the inmate was in his cell when he wasn’t.

The Samoa News reports that the prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General Doug Lowe, told the jury panel of five women and one man, the cover up of a crime can be worse than the crime itself.

He said on the early morning of August 12 last year, Lomu, who was the Watch Commander tired to cover up inmate Lefatia’s escape by instructing those under his watch to “stick to one story.”

Additionally he told another TCF officer to change the log so that the record would show that their morning shift did the headcount for inmates on the hour.

Furthermore, said the prosecutor, Lomu instructed officer Viopapa Vitolio to create a “TCF fake log.”

Assistant Public Defender Ryan Anderson who’s representing Lomu said the government did not complete their investigation and wrongly accused his client for a crime he never committeed.

The trial is expected to last for the rest of the week.