Updated at 2:59 p.m., Sunday, January 27, 2008
Former prison warden, corrections officer sentenced
Advertiser Staff
Mika Kelemete, the former warden at the Tafuna Correctional Facility in Pago Pago, American Samoa, and Siaumau Mapu, a former corrections officer at the same prison, were sentenced last week in federal court in Honolulu for their roles in separate incidents involving the physical assaults of inmates in 2003.Kelemete was sentenced to 24 months imprisonment, according to an FBI news release. Mapu received a sentence of 39 months. After their release from prison, both will be on federal supervised release for three years.
According to the news release, during his guilty plea on Aug. 15, 2007, Kelemete admitted that in August 2003, he ordered two corrections officers to remove an inmate from his cell and bring the inmate to the center of the facility where he was handcuffed to a pole. At that point, Kelemete picked up a board and struck the inmate on his head and his back until the board broke.
When Mapu pleaded guilty on June 26, 2007, he admitted that he abused his authority as a corrections officer when, in January 2003, he unnecessarily and repeatedly struck an inmate on the head. The inmate suffered significant ear drum damage as a result of the beating. Mapu also pleaded guilty to making false statements to FBI agents who were investigating another alleged assault at the Tafuna facility.
