PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review
By Liz Zemba
Thursday, Dec. 3, 2015
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.
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