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	Ex-Church Aide Sleazeball By Richard Weir New York Daily News [Mineola] April 25, 2007 http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/2007/04/25/2007-04-25_exchurch_aide_sleazeball.html A former youth minister at an East Meadow church admitted yesterday that he seduced a teenage girl and boy under his tutelage, and even videotaped them having group sex. Matthew Maiello, now 33 and living in Stamford, Conn., confessed to repeatedly having intercourse with the then-15-year-old girl, first on a couch in his basement office in the convent at St. Raphael's Catholic Church in May 1999 and then, over the next three years, at his home, at the victim's home, in a Long Beach motel and on a boat. On one occasion, he said, he rushed her out of the Broadway play "Jesus Christ Superstar" after the first act so they could have sex at his Lynbrook home and still drop her off at her parents' home in time. His testimony came one day after his female victim, now 23, tearfully told a state Supreme Court civil jury how Maiello wooed her by convincing her that he planned to marry her and that it was "God's plan" for them to be together. Maiello was called as a witness in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit filed against him by the woman and a male plaintiff, the parish, its pastor, the Rev. Thomas Haggerty and the Diocese of Rockville Centre. Maiello, who was first hired by the parish to lead its rock Mass before being promoted to the $20,000-a-year job of youth ministry director, acknowledged telling the girl he intended to marry her but denied doing so as part of plan to manipulate her. "At that point in time, that's what I believed I wanted," he said. He also refuted her assertions that they had sex on church pews but said he could not recall whether they had trysts in the church auditorium. "Did you believe it was appropriate to take the virginity of a young girl in your office at the parish?" attorney Ben Rubinowitz, a lawyer for the two victims, asked Maiello. "No," replied Maiello, who was 25 at the time. The ex-minister later testified that he pressured the girl, a star singer in the church pageants he produced, into first fondling and then having sex with a then-15-year-old boy, the other plaintiff in the suit. "You enjoyed watching this. ... You were getting off on it?" Rubinowitz grilled Maiello, saying the defendant masturbated in his office while watching the teens. "Yes," replied Maiello, who later admitted performing oral sex on the boy during threesomes with the teens. In 2003, Maiello pleaded guilty to statutory rape of the teens, as well as two other victims, and served two years in prison. Though a defendant in the suit, he is not contesting the charges against him. However, on several occasions, he invoked his "Fifth Amendment privilege" and declined to answer Rubinowitz's questions about whether he had sex with other named victims. At one point during a break in the testimony, Maiello was confronted by a close family friend of his female victim. "How does it feel to abuse my little girl?" Donna Arena, 52, of Merrick, shouted at Maiello as he walked down a courthouse hallway. Speaking to reporters, Arena said the young woman - who, like her male counterpart, did not sit in the courtroom to watch Maiello testify - is still scarred by the ordeal. "It rips your heart," the friend said. "Nothing will take the pain away. This girl's been through hell and back.... He should have been put away for 20 years." Contact: rweir@nydailynews.com
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