PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
By Paul Peirce
Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014
A Somerset County priest accused of sexually abusing an orphaned boy in Honduras will remain in jail while a federal prosecutor appeals a magistrate’s ruling that would allow the suspended priest to await trial under home detention.
U.S. Magistrate Keith Pesto ruled in Johnstown Thursday that the Rev. Joseph Maurizio Jr., 69, the suspended priest from Our Lady Queen of Angels in Central City, Somerset County, could be released from the Cambria County Jail to await trial.
But Maurizio will stay there for now because Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Haines said she would appeal Pesto’s decision to U.S. District Judge Kim Gibson in an effort to detain the suspect.
A federal indictment accuses Maurizio of traveling to Honduras between Feb. 26 and March 13, 2009, to have sex with an underage boy. He is charged with engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places and possession of material depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor.
The indictment alleges he had at least one image of child pornography in his possession on Sept. 12, the day federal agents executed search warrants at his Windber home and his parish rectory.
Pesto ruled that Maurizio could await trial under home detention if all his personal bank accounts were frozen and his access was cut off from church accounts. The suspended priest, who owns a farm, would have been denied Internet access.
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