PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review
BY LIZ ZEMBA | Monday, Feb. 1, 2016
The attorney for a Somerset County priest convicted in federal court of sexually molesting boys at a Honduran orphanage is seeking a new trial based on newly discovered evidence and allegations that prosecutors withheld evidence favorable to the defense.
The Rev. Joseph D. Maurizio Jr., 70, was to be sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Johnstown. But the former pastor of Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Central City instead will appear before Judge Kim R. Gibson for an evidentiary hearing on motions for a new trial.
Federal prosecutors said Maurizio used a self-run charity based in Johnstown, Humanitarian Interfaith Ministries, to visit the orphanage numerous times between 1999 and 2009, promising candy and cash to boys to watch them shower, have sex or fondle them.
Maurizio did not testify during his trial in September. Through his attorney, Steven Passarello of Altoona, he has maintained his innocence.
Gibson denied an earlier motion seeking a new trial that was based on insufficient evidence but dismissed one of the jury’s five guilty verdicts.
Passarello is again seeking a new trial, this time in two motions filed under seal.
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