She was a FIFA hopeful, now she is in court for SA charges against a 14-year-old in braces

Oteta Kristina Kitiona, a 20-year-old soccer player who recently competed in FIFA Women’s World Cup qualifiers, is now facing serious criminal charges in Utah after allegedly sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy multiple times over several months. According to a probable cause statement obtained by the Daily Mail, the alleged abuse occurred while Kitiona was 19

The boy told police Kitiona would visit his home two to three times a week to engage in sexual activity, starting in June 2024 and continuing until October, when she left Utah to attend Bellevue College in Washington. The abuse allegedly resumed in November after she returned to Salt Lake City. 

Court documents describe the victim, also known as DL, as a slight 5’9”, 135-pound teenager who was still in braces at the time, while Kitiona weighed 150 pounds and was actively playing for Samoa’s national women’s soccer team. The charges against Kitiona were filed just two months after her final appearances in Samoa’s failed World Cup qualifying campaign. 

So much for that budding career

Now, she faces one count of distributing material harmful to a minor, a third-degree felony, and three counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor while under 21. Of those, one is a third-degree felony, and the other two are class A misdemeanors.

The probable cause statement details how DL claimed he and Kitiona “entered into a relationship” around May or June 2024, which turned sexual by the end of June. He alleged Kitiona sent him nude photos and videos, describing them as showing “everything” with her “head to toe clean, naked in both pictures and videos.” 

She also reportedly asked DL to send explicit images of himself while he was in the shower, which he told police he did. All the alleged crimes were listed as occurring on June 24, 2024.

On the same day the charges were filed, a pretrial no-contact order was proposed. This bars Kitiona from any direct or indirect communication with the minor. 

That includes in-person contact, digital messages, and even being near his home or school. Court records show she was not booked into jail, but a summons was issued for her to appear in Salt Lake City’s Third District Court at 8:30 AM on June 6.

Utah’s age of consent is 18, but state law reduces the severity of charges when the accused is under 21, and the minor is between 14 and 16. Kitiona’s charges specifically note that she was less than four years older than DL at the time of the alleged abuse.