PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review
By Liz Zemba
Friday, Sept. 4, 2015
A federal judge will allow a former Honduran orphan to testify that a Somerset County priest attempted to photograph him in the nude when he was a boy, even though no criminal charges were filed in connection with those allegations.
The witness, identified as John Doe, is expected to testify that the Rev. Joseph D. Maurizio tried to photograph him naked in a bathtub, and that he saw Maurizio sexually abuse three minors.
But prosecutors on Friday revealed that Doe, during an interview Thursday with a federal investigator, accused Maurizio of touching him inappropriately.
“While the government was aware that he may have witnessed the sexual abuse of Minors 1, 2, and 3, the government has now learned that this individual was also a victim,” prosecutors Amy Larson and Stephanie Haines said in the filing. “He stated that while he was a minor and residing at the nonprofit organization, the defendant touched his penis over his pants.”
Doe will be permitted to testify when Maurizio’s trial starts Tuesday, following an order issued late Friday in which Judge Kim R. Gibson granted a prosecution request to present evidence of “uncharged conduct.”
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