PENNSYLVANIA
The Altoona Mirror
February 3, 2016
By Phil Ray (pray@altoonamirror.com) , The Altoona Mirror
JOHNSTOWN – Tuesday was supposed to be the day that Father Joseph D. Maurizio Jr. of Somerset was sentenced for sexually abusing several Honduran children, but instead, the hearing turned into an argument for a new trial based on a victim’s impact statement in which he said the 71-year-old priest did not abuse him.
That statement made by Victim 2, referred to in court as Erick, ran counter to his testimony during last September’s trial in which Maurizio was found guilty of sexually abusing children at the ProNino orphanage in El Progresso, taking improper pictures of a naked child and using funds raised to support the orphanage to pay for sexual favors from the children.
Erick said in his appearance on the witness stand last September that he was one of three boys who, during a March 2009 visit by Maurizio to ProNino, were asked to help transport supplies throughout the large complex.
He was 15 years old at the time, and he told a federal court jury that he had once been a street child.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.