KEY POINTS:
The children of Folole Muliaga are devastated and their lawyer will lodge a complaint with the Commissioner of Police after an acrimonious meeting between the family and officers investigating the Mangere woman's death.
Mrs Muliaga's 20-year-old son was reduced to tears after the meeting with detectives on Saturday, family spokesman Brenden Sheehan told the Herald last night.
Mrs Muliaga, 44, died last month, hours after the electricity to her home and her oxygen machine was cut off by a Mercury Energy contractor.
Mr Sheehan - a relative - said the talks with the police broke down after they refused "point blank" to show family lawyer Olinda Woodroffe copies of earlier statements by the children.
The officers gave no reason for their refusal, and the confrontation left the 20-year-old "too upset to talk", Mr Sheehan said.
"He's 20, but he's a very young 20. He still lives at home."
The family were struggling to come to terms with Mrs Muliaga's death, and Saturday's meeting - arranged by Ms Woodroffe and attended by a Samoan interpreter - had left them "astounded" by the police attitude.
"We are victims here, we are not suspects. Police could have a bit more sensitivity."
Ms Woodroffe last night confirmed Mr Sheehan's story, saying that when she asked for copies of the earlier statements, the police said, "There's no need for you to see it".
"They came in with an attitude."
She said it was not acceptable that the boys had earlier been interviewed without a lawyer or interpreter and without first being read their rights.
But police spokeswoman Noreen Hegarty said last night that the family had been treated "with full regard to their tragic circumstances".
Mr Muliaga had been spoken to in Samoan, by a Samoan officer, and the two oldest sons - including the 20-year-old - has chosen to converse in English.
Both boys had been educated to seventh-form level and one was in his second year of tertiary education, Ms Hegarty said.
The Muliagas had initiated the meeting, but it did not proceed as Ms Woodroffe did not agree to the terms.
It is not the family's first run-in with police over Mrs Muliaga's death.
Mr Sheehan told the Herald last week that the family believed the investigation was fundamentally flawed because of a lack of cultural awareness - which included interviewing family members in English, their second language.
To conduct six-hour interviews with the Muliaga boys the day after their mother's death was "absolutely improper".
Also at the weekend, the Muliaga family's plight was used to help a trade union gain support for industrial action.
In a press release entitled "Muliaga's work mates strike against poverty wages", Unite union organiser Daphna Whitmore claimed workers at the Centra Airport Hotel in South Auckland are so poorly paid they "cannot make ends meet".
Workers at the hotel - where Mr Muliaga works in the kitchen - are due to strike again at 4pm today. The strike, the third in three weeks, is to push for a 5 per cent pay increase.
The press release told how Mr Muliaga joined his workmates in a strike on the morning of May 29.
"Later that day, his wife died after the power was cut at their home."
But Ms Whitmore yesterday rejected a suggestion the union was using the tragedy for political mileage.
She said the matter had not been discussed with the family.
