Pennsylvania Priest Charged after Allegedly Using ‘missionary’ Trips to Honduras to Have Sex with Children

By Darren Boyle
Daily Mail
September 26, 2014

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2770850/Pennsylvania-priest-charged-allegedly-using-missionary-trips-Honduras-sex-children.html

Federal prosecutors have charged a Roman Catholic priest who is alleged to have engaged in 'illicit sexual conduct' with children and as well as possessing images of child abuse in the rectory of his church.

Fr Joseph D. Maurizo Jr, 69 was charged following an investigation by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Secuirty Investigations unit into his activities during trips to Honduras.

Fr Maurizo appeared in Federal court yesterday in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and was remanded in custody until Monday morning.

Fr Joseph Maurizo was arrested following and investigation by federal authorities into allegations of child sex abuse, agents raiding Maurizo's home recovered digital storage media alleged to contain images of child abuse

Fr Maurizo was parish priest at Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Central City, Pennsylvania until his arrest when he was forced to stand aside.

According to Federal prosecutors, between 1999 and 2009 Maurizo travelled from Pennsylvania to Honduras as part of a non-profit organisation he established providing help to small children in Central America.

Each trip lasted between two and three weeks.

According to a statement released by the United States Attorney's office: 'The HSI Pittsburgh investigation that began in February revealed that during the timeframe in which he travelled to Honduras, Maurizio engaged in various and numerous unlawful sexual activities with minors.

'However, after the charged illicit sexual conduct occurred in March of 2009, Maurizio did not engage in any foreign travel again until July of 2011.

'From July 2011 through the present, foreign travel records indicate that Maurizio has made approximately 10 separate trips to various Central American countries.

'On September 12, search warrants were executed by HSI special agents at the rectory at Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Central City, Pennsylvania, and a farm owned by Maurizio in Windber.

'Dozens of pieces of evidence were seized from the rectory including four computers, a laptop, hundreds of CDs, a loose hard drive, camera, floppy disks, thumb drives, VHS tapes and media cards.

Fr Maurizio, centre, is accused by federal authorities of travelling to Honduras to abuse vulnerable children

Maurizio also faces a child porn charge based on images of a prepubescent boy posing on a bed with his genitals exposed.

Maurizio has said abuse allegations against him were a bogus plot by the Honduran government to thwart his charity work.

The priest's attorney, Steven Passarello, said the criminal complaint regurgitates allegations made five years ago after the priest's charity had a falling out with a local charity. He said children were bribed or coerced into making abuse allegations.

According to the complaint, ICE's Pittsburgh office of Homeland Security Investigations began investigating in February after a board member of a nonprofit that assists Honduran street children reported abuse allegations against Maurizio on a watchdog website that tracks such claims against Catholic priests.

'The board member reported the allegations of abuse to the website after growing dissatisfied with what he believed to be an apparent lack of progress in the four-year criminal investigation of Maurizio,' the complaint said.

Homeland Security agents learned that the FBI began investigating allegations that the priest abused Honduran children in 2009, it said. The FBI said it couldn't comment on the delay in the investigation but said it was working with ICE.

Federal agents have travelled to Honduras where they have interviewed several alleged victims who claim Mauizio abused them, took naked photographs and offered them chocolates in return for performing sex acts.

Maurizio would face up to 30 years in prison if convicted of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place. The pornography charge carries a 10-year maximum sentence upon conviction.