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December 7, 2004
Students held in robbery, burglary
Benjamin Buettner
Mesa Legend
Five MCC students, including three football players, were involved in an attempted burglary of a Scottsdale home on Nov. 8, according to police reports.
Filisione Maafu, Elaiuti Lama and Tuipuloutu Ofahulu were all charged with attempted armed robbery and burglary in the first degree, which is punishable by 7 to 21 years in prison. In addition, Ofahulu is also charged with aggravated assault.
Lama, along with Andre Johnson and Andrew Cunningham, are all defensive linemen for the MCC football team. Johnson and Cunningham were arrested for attempted armed robbery and attempted Burglary in the 2nd degree. All charges are felonies.
Lama, Johnson and Cunningham, allegedly hired two MCC students (Maafu and Ofahulu) to rob a Scottsdale home at 2024 N. 70th Street, according to Maafu’s own confession in the police report. Maafu and Ofahulu were chased on foot by the Scottsdale Police Department through the surrounding area until they were detained then taken to jail. Maafu was quoted by Officer H. Rivera in Rivera’s squad car as saying “you guys better search that house really good,” explaining that there were large amounts of “drugs, cash and weapons” in the Scottsdale home.
Maafu is to be arraigned on Dec. 13, while Lama and Ofahulu have an initial pre trial conference set for Jan. 5, 2005. The cases involving Cunningham and Johnson are still in process in the County Attorney’s Office but the two were released Nov. 15 and 16 respectively.
MCC athletic director and head football coach, Dan Dunn, was asked for the program’s stance on the situation and said, “We are on standby. These kids have been accused of a crime (and) they could be guilty by association, but in the crime itself, if they are criminals, then there is no place for that. That is not part of what we are trying to do.”
There are inevitable questions about to what degree this will hurt the MCC program. Dunn acknowledged the program’s position and stated, “It’s going to hurt the program in a lot of different ways. We are responsible for those kids. They are a part of our program. Anytime you have kids not doing what they are supposed to, that is a reflection of the leadership of the program and will hurt bringing in future kids.” Dunn went on to illustrate his sternness saying “I do not justify this, and if they are guilty, they will be eliminated from the program.”
Offensive coordinator Roger Schenks thought the effect on the program was less critical and responded on how losing, possibly, three returning defensive linemen would hinder next year’s performance on the defensive line. “We still have a good corp,” said Schenks. “Aaron Fernandez (DL) is coming back next year from injury and he would have started all this year and we have kids that are interested all across the country.” Schenks confirmed that Lama was still in jail when spoken to on Nov. 29 because he couldn’t post his bond and went on to mention that the players were good kids and said “you hate to lose three guys for something silly.”
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