APIA, SAMOA \u2013 08 JUNE 2022:<\/strong> The manslaughter charge against a church minster, Reverend Poasa Leaupepe has been reduced to assault after a medical report says the deceased died from leukaemia.<\/p>\nThe defendant was charged with manslaughter, grievous bodily harm and actual bodily harm, and\u00a0was scheduled for an Assessors hearing before Justice Fepuleai Ameperosa Roma yesterday.<\/p>\n
However, prosecution applied to the Court to withdraw all charges and replace them with one count of assault.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are serious charges, what is the basis of the applications?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
Prosecutor Fuifui Ioane said there was insufficient evidence to proceed with the charges hence the application to withdraw all charges and replace them with the lesser charge of assault.<\/p>\n
The assault was not disputed and the application was granted and the defendant\u2019s not guilty plea to the previous charges has been vacated and replaced with a guilty plea to the lesser charge.<\/p>\n
Assault charge filed in 2020 <\/strong>
\nThe charge stemmed from an incident where the defendant assaulted the victim on 4 February 2020 at Safotu, where the defendant served as a church minister.<\/p>\nThree weeks later, the victim died at Motootua hospital and police charged the defendant with manslaughter and two other charges.<\/p>\n
The Court heard that a medical opinion had already been provided that the victim died of leukaemia.<\/p>\n
However, police opted for an autopsy which confirmed the medical opinion that the cause of death was complications of leukaemia.<\/p>\n
The matter is now referred to the District Court for mention next Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Lagi Keresoma APIA, SAMOA \u2013 08 JUNE 2022: The manslaughter charge against a church minster, Reverend Poasa Leaupepe has been reduced to assault after a medical report says the deceased died from leukaemia. The defendant was charged with manslaughter, grievous bodily harm and actual bodily harm, and\u00a0was scheduled for an Assessors hearing before Justice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[182,177,181],"tags":[1075,59,1074,1076],"class_list":["post-11888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-court","category-latest","category-people","tag-assault","tag-featured","tag-manslaughter-charge-reduced","tag-safotu-efks-church-minister"],"yoast_head":"\n
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