Altoona-Johnstown priest indicted on child-sex charges

By Torsten Ove
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
October 8, 2014

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/east/2014/10/08/Altoona-Johnstown-Diocese-priest-indicted-on-child-sex-charges-Honduras/stories/201410080157

A Catholic priest in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese arrested last week on charges of sexually abusing boys in Honduras was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury.

The Rev. Joseph Maurizio, 69, was charged with engaging in illicit sex in foreign places and possession of child pornography.

He remains in custody pending a detention hearing in federal court in Johnstown. The U.S. attorney's office has requested he be held pending trial as a risk to flee and as a danger to the community. No date has been set for the hearing.

Agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security arrested Father Maurizio on Thursday following an investigation that began in February. Agents had raided the chapel and rectory of his church, Our Lady Queen of Angels, on Sept. 12 and seized numerous computers, disks and other electronic items on which they said they found child porn.

Agents said Father Maurizio had been visiting an orphanage in Honduras for a decade until 2009, when ProNino USA, the charity that runs the orphanage, learned of the child-sex allegations and confronted the priest back in Pennsylvania. He denied the accusations and threatened the group, saying he would withhold funding for the orphanage if it persisted with an investigation, according to an affidavit.

The charity then alerted the FBI, the diocese and the state attorney general's office.

No one took action to remove Father Maurizio, however, and he remained at the church until the charity reported the allegations again last December on a website that tracks pedophile priests.

A Homeland Security agent then began his own investigation, reviewing the FBI's files and traveling to Honduras to interview the alleged victims.