PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat
By Mark Pesto
mpesto@tribdem.com
Todd Berkey
tberkey@tribdem.com
A federal appeals court on Monday upheld the conviction of a former Somerset County priest who was found guilty in 2015 of traveling to Honduras to sexually abuse orphans and sentenced last year to more than 16 years in federal prison.
The Rev. Joseph D. Maurizio Jr., who at the time of his September 2014 arrest was the pastor at Our Lady Queen of Angels Parish in Central City, had asked the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to overturn his conviction.
Maurizio and his attorneys had argued, according to the appeals court’s opinion, that his conviction should have been overturned because:
“the weight of the evidence did not support his conviction on counts relating to illicit sexual conduct with a minor and possession of child pornography”;
“the Government withheld material exculpatory evidence with respect to one of the counts of illicit sexual conduct with a minor”;
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