Former school official convicted for explicit messages to student

By Jameson Cook
Macomb Daily
September 18, 2017

http://www.macombdaily.com/general-news/20170918/former-school-official-convicted-for-explicit-messages-to-student

STURZA

A high school administrator was convicted of two counts and acquitted of two counts related to sending explicit electronic messages to a student at the school.

Joseph P. Sturza, 50, the former admissions officer at Austin Catholic High School when it was located in Ray Township, was found guilty of child sexually abusive activity and using a computer to commit a crime following a four-day trial in Macomb County Circuit Court, according to court records. The school has since relocated to a new site in Chesterfield Township.

Each charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Sturza, a Macomb Township resident, was acquitted of the lesser charges of accosting a child for immoral purposes, punishable by up to four years behind bars, and using a computer to commit a crime, punishable by up to seven years in prison, records say.

Sturza was accused of repeatedly telling a male student how to masturbate, communicating in person, internet chats and text messages before his arrest in November 2014, prosecutors said. Comments were made to the youth during visits in Sturza’s office.

Sturza’s attorney, Stephen Rabaut, said he disagrees with but respects the jury’s verdict.

“Certainly his conduct could be construed as being inappropriate but isn’t a crime,” Rabaut said. “He was trying to support the young man.”

During opening arguments Rabaut told jurors his client was helping a student “dealing with the ridicule” of his homosexuality.

“His parents were angry, his parents were frustrated by the fact that he was gay,” Rabaut said. “He (Sturza) was the one person who told (the youth), ‘You have to be the person you are.’”

Rabaut said Sturza, who was supported by his wife and children, was disappointed in the verdict but “isn’t crying about it.”

“He took a shot (at a trial) and realized” the potential outcome, he said.

The youth testified against Sturza at the trial while the prosecution presented electronic messages Sturza sent to him.

Assistant Macomb Prosecutor William Harding also presented an expert witness on the dynamics of child sexual abuse.

Sturza, who remains free after posting a $50,000 bond, is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 2 by Judge Michael Servitto.

Rabaut said the 20-year maximum term is a harsh penalty for the conduct.

“He certainly is not a criminally-oriented human being,” he said.

The jury deliberated over seven hours Friday before reaching a verdict around 6:30 p.m.

The case was delayed partly due to Sturza’s unsuccessful appeal of prior judge Mary Chrzanowski’s denial of his legal motion to “quash” the charges.

Sturza, who previously worked as a youth minister at St. Isidore Catholic Church in Macomb Township, was dismissed from Austin, where he spent two years. Sturza also formerly worked at St. Francis of Assisi-St. Maximilian Kolbe Parish in New Haven and St. Mary Mystical Rose Parish in Armada. He also was a host of a news show broadcast on SHTV, the public access arm of the city of Sterling Heights Community Relations office, while employed by that department.