Tongan tells harsh tale of servitude
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
A Tongan national allegedly smuggled into Hawai'i to work told a federal jury yesterday that his employer struck him for taking a sick day and that he grew fearful enough to escape after four months.
The worker — Tukutau Tupouata, now living in Los Angeles — is the second to testify among seven Tongans, the alleged victims in a human trafficking case before U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway.
The men worked for Lueleni Maka, another Tongan and a permanent Hawai'i resident who ran a Nanakuli pig farm as well as a rock-wall building and landscaping business.
It is the first time a Hawai'i resident has been charged under federal "involuntary servitude" and "forced labor" statutes. Maka's indictment also includes charges of human trafficking, alien harboring, alien smuggling and other offenses.
Mollway will adjourn the trial for a Thanksgiving-week recess; attorneys for both sides said they expect the case to extend into the second week of December.
Assistant U.S. Attorney William Shipley has presented witness testimony that so far describes substandard working and living conditions for the men, who complained of being paid between $100 and $300 for a week's work, sometimes receiving nothing at all.
But William Domingo, an assistant federal defender representing Maka, drew out testimony from another Tongan, Francis Tautua'a, depicting a less constrained environment. Tautua'a acknowledged that the men had enough freedom to have drinks after work, spend frequent nights with their girlfriends and leave the Hakimo Road farm with ease.
Tautua'a was arrested on federal immigration offenses in December 2002, and the investigation to determine how he got into the country ultimately led to Maka's indictment.
Speaking through an interpreter, Tupouata testified that Maka brought him to Hawai'i in March 2002, using the passport of a U.S. citizen that Maka handed him, along with the instructions to avoid looking at the immigration officials at the airport.
He said he arrived without a change of clothes, also at Maka's instructions, and had expected he'd be living in his employer's Waipahu home. Instead, Tupouata said, he was taken to the farm and into one of its shacklike dwellings, where he spent his first night curled up on a mat on the concrete floor.
About two weeks after his arrival, Tupouata said, he awoke feeling ill and did not report to the job site that day. He said he was surprised when Maka appeared later in the day and, without saying a word, struck him with a 3-foot piece of lumber.
"I was lying on my stomach," he said. "Then I feel the piece of lumber hitting my back. He asked me why I didn't go to work. I said I was sick."
Tupouata said his wife had gone from Tonga to Los Angeles for work, and the couple planned to reunite at the home of an aunt and uncle on Maui. He said that Maka allowed him to go for a weekend stay, accompanied by a foreman, but when they arrived they found that the wife had not been able to get the airfare.
He said he decided to run away at the airport, with the help of the uncle, and then worked for him until he raised enough money to fly to Los Angeles. Tupouata is expected to return to the witness stand today.
Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.
