Feds examined accused Somerset County priest's finances

By Paul Peirce
Tribune-Review
September 14, 2015

http://triblive.com/news/somerset/9092165-74/maurizio-boxler-petrulak#axzz3lnmzn3fQ

An agent with the Internal Revenue Service told a federal jury in Johnstown Monday that he was asked to assist in the probe of a Somerset County Catholic priest who allegedly had sex with boys at a Honduran orphanage after investigators found he had personal assets of nearly $1 million.

Kevin Petrulak said Homeland Security agents contacted him about a year ago after they arrested the Rev. Joseph Maurizio, 70, and confiscated computers and personal records from his parish, Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Central City in Somerset County, the rectory and the farmhouse he owns in Windber.

“I was told (Maurizio) had failed to report to the court about $1 million in personal assets (after his arrest). We ultimately found he actually had $1.2 million in personal assets,” Petrulak said.

“(Homeland Security) didn't think (the amount) seemed within reason for a Catholic priest,” Petrulak told jurors.

Petrulak said the assets were in numerous bank accounts in Maurizio's name, as well as several annuities and life insurance policies they seized after his Sept. 25 arrest.

Prosecutors allege that Maurizio used money from a foundation he established to benefit the ProNino orphanage in Honduras, where he regularly traveled to molest boys from 2003-09.

Maurizio is charged with four counts of engaging in illicit conduct in foreign places, one count of child pornography and three counts of transporting, transmitting or transferring funds into or out of the United States with the intent to promote unlawful activity.

Petrulak testified that he looked into disbursements from Maurizio's self-run foundation, Humanitarian Interfaith Ministries, to the Honduran orphanage from 2004-09.

Petrulak said records show that Maurizio typically took two mission trips a year to Honduras with volunteers from Cambria and Somerset counties.

Petrulak said records show that a few weeks before he left on a trip, Maurizio would forward a check from his foundation to ProNino officials in Honduras, ranging from $996 to $5,000, intended for advance expenses.

Under questioning from assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Haines, Petrulak said Maurizio would email ProNino officials that the check should be changed into Honduran currency and given to him when he arrived to cover all expenses of the volunteers with him. He would notify others affiliated with his foundation that the money was “advance funds for travel and expense reimbursements ... for all costs of the trip.”

But when Maurizio returned from each trip, he would “write himself checks” from the foundation account for personal expenses, many of which matched amounts of the cash advances he had taken before he left, Petrulak told jurors.

Petrulak alleged financial records show Maurizio was taking reimbursements from his foundation “for personal expenses he had already taken in advance for the trip from the charity.”

Earlier Monday, jurors heard from Richard Boxler, a self-employed property manager who attended St. Andrew Church in Johnstown, where Maurizio was pastor. Boxler said he helped Maurizio with bookkeeping for his charity and traveled with the priest “10 to 12 times” on mission trips between 2004 and 2009.

Boxler testified that Maurizio “would take care of most of the finances himself.”

Boxler identified reimbursement checks for more than $10,700 that he co-signed and Maurizio cashed from foundation accounts during the six-year period.

“Mr. Maurizio would come to you to co-sign the check after he'd write it out?” asked Justice Department attorney Amy Larson, the co-prosecutor.

“Yes,” Boxler replied.

Boxler testified about an email Maurizio wrote him in 2008 asking him to endorse a regulation he set up barring church members on missions from photographing partially nude boys while visiting the orphanage.

Boxler said Maurizio made the rule because someone objected to a photograph the priest took of a group of boys — some nude and some wearing only underwear — in a makeshift outdoor pool.

“His message was to make sure no one made the same mistake he did,” Boxler said.

On cross-examination, Maurizio's attorney, Steven P. Passarello of Altoona, asked Boxler whether Maurizio filed documentation and receipts of his personal expenses before taking reimbursements. Boxler said Maurizio always submitted receipts.

“While you were on any mission trips, did you ever see my client act inappropriately with any of these boys while in Honduras?” Passarello asked.

“I never did,” Boxler replied.

Maurizio has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. He has been held in the Cambria County Jail since his arrest last September.

The trial is expected to continue Wednesday morning before U.S. District Court Judge Kim Gibson.