Judge Tosses Part of Child-sex Verdict against Somerset County Priest

By Liz Zemba
Tribune-Review
December 3, 2015

http://triblive.com/news/westmoreland/9553595-74/maurizio-counts-gibson#axzz3tGELoirk

Suspended Somerset County priest Joseph Maurizio has been charged with child sexual exploitation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

A federal judge threw out one of the guilty verdicts a jury delivered against a Somerset County priest accused of traveling to Central America to have sex with boys but denied a request for a new trial on the remaining four counts.

The Rev. Joseph D. Maurizio Jr., 70, was found guilty Sept. 22 of three counts of engaging or attempting to engage in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places and one count each of possession of child pornography and money laundering.

Federal prosecutors said Maurizio used a self-run charity based in Johnstown, Humanitarian Interfaith Ministries, to visit a Honduran orphanage numerous times between 1999 and 2009, promising candy and cash to boys to watch them shower, have sex or fondle them.

Maurizio, the former pastor of Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Central City, had pleaded not guilty and did not testify during the seven-day trial.

In an appeal prior to sentencing, Maurizio's attorney, Steven Passarello of Altoona, challenged the five guilty verdicts and requested a new trial. He argued prosecutors did not present enough evidence to sustain the convictions, leaving “strong doubt as to the defendant's guilt.”

U.S. District Judge Kim R. Gibson on Tuesday handed down orders denying the new trial but issued a judgment of acquittal on one of the three counts of engaging or attempting to engage in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places.

“We're ecstatic in regard to the one count,” Passarello said on Wednesday. “He (Gibson) agreed there was simply not enough evidence for the finding of guilt.”

In the orders and opinions, Gibson noted one of the alleged victims recanted on the witness stand.

Gibson noted that although prosecutors presented one witness who described seeing Maurizio engage in a sex act with that victim in 2009, prosecutors had alleged it occurred two years earlier, in 2007.

“The government presented no evidence through (the victim) that defendant engaged in illicit sexual conduct with the victim during the timeframe of March 5, 2004, and March 11, 2007,” Gibson wrote. “The government presented no evidence through its other witnesses that defendant engaged in illicit sexual conduct with (the victim) during the timeframe of March 5, 2004, and March 11, 2007.”

Passarello said he plans to appeal to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, once Maurizio is sentenced in February.

“We believe there was no basis for a jury finding of guilt on any of the counts,” Passarello said. “The judge disagreed, and we will appeal.”

Liz Zemba is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 412-601-2166 or lzemba@tribweb.com