He represented the Keleʻa newspaper again when it was sued for defamation by Clive Edwards, Minister of Public Enterprises and Revenue, who accused its editor, Mateni Tapueluelu, and its publisher, Laucala Pohiva Tapueluelu, of having falsely written that he was a member of a "secret" political party.

Specifically, Edwards alleged that the false story had contributed to his losing his seat in Parliament in the 2010 general election.

[4] The case began fairly poorly for Tuʻutafaiva, when one of the first witnesses he called failed to corroborate the defendants' version of events.

The case, beginning before the Supreme Court, was a criminal trial over the sinking of the MV Princess Ashika, an inter-island ferry which sank in August 2009 with seventy-four fatalities.

Five persons, and the Shipping Corporation of Polynesia, were charged primarily with manslaughter by negligence over the death of one of the passengers, Vae Fetuʻu Taufa.