Honduran Man Who Alleged Somerset Priest Molested Him at Orphanage Recants during Federal Trial
By Paul Peirce
A Honduran man who told federal agents last year that he was sexually abused by a Somerset County priest while he lived at an orphanage recanted Tuesday when he testified before a federal jury in Johnstown. Prosecutors expected the man, who is now 24, to testify that he was given gifts in exchange for sex with the Rev. Joseph Maurizio Jr., 70, of Windber. The priest was a benefactor of the orphanage from 2004 to 2009. Prosecutors have shown numerous photographs of the alleged victim during the trial, often shirtless and holding gifts that he earlier testified Maurizio gave him on visits to the mission. While he was on the witness stand on the fourth day of the trial, the man changed his story and said the priest never touched him. “I wanted to come to testify to tell the truth,” he said. When federal agents questioned him in November, he said, “I was under so much pressure ... I lied.” “Father Joe never abused me. Father Joe was a gentleman,” he said. The man conceded he told federal agents that Maurizio had sex with him and asked him to pose naked when he was 15 and 16 years old. “I did tell agents that, but I felt confused,” the man said, speaking in Spanish with the assistance of a government interpreter. “I felt so much pressure. ... I made it all up, just to get out of there.” U.S. Justice Department attorney Amy Larson asked the man about whether he told prosecutors when he arrived in the United States for the trial more than a week ago that he couldn't wait to testify and wanted “Father Joe to spend the rest of his life in jail because of what he did.” The man acknowledged he said that. “Now I want to lift my image,” he testified. “The priest never touched me.” When Larson asked why he would tell multiple U.S. investigators that Maurizio sexually abused him, then testify in court that it never happened, the man was adamant. “I can lie before all of them (federal agents), but I couldn't lie before God. I came here to tell the truth,” he said. Prosecutors allege that Maurizio used money from the foundation he established to benefit the ProNino orphanage in Honduras and regularly traveled there to molest boys from 2003-09. The priest 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 U.S. with the intent to promote unlawful activity. Agents confiscated computers and personal records from his parish, Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Central City, the rectory and the farmhouse he owns in Windber. The jury of seven men and five woman heard from another Honduran man Tuesday who said he was sexually abused by Maurizio on multiple occasions. That alleged victim, now 21, said he went to live at the orphanage at age 5 and left in 2011 when he was 18. Under questioning from Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Haines, the man said he once told ProNino administrators that Maurizio was abusing him. “Yes, I did tell them, but they didn't listen then,” he said. The man told jurors that he was very young when Maurizio first offered him candy to grope him when they were alone at the orphanage. When he was 11 or 12, they had sex when they were alone in the mission's church, he said. “He told me if I'd let him touch me, he'd give me a bag of candy. I was little then and didn't know. ... He touched my private parts,” the man said. In 2004 or 2005, the man said he had sex with Maurizio inside the mission's church. He said Maurizio paid him “500 American dollars.” The testimony Tuesday corroborated statements from two prior witnesses who said on Friday that they watched Maurizio and the boy have sex inside the church several years ago through a window. Under cross-examination by Maurizio's attorney, Steven Passarello of Altoona, the alleged victim admitted he once told one of Maurizio's case investigators in Honduras that he was never abused by the priest. “I lied then. ... (The investigator), he was trying to trick me. I am telling the truth now,” he said. Jurors also heard testimony from a third Honduran, now 28, who said Maurizio once tried to photograph him naked showering with another teenager at a temporary mission facility that served homeless children before 2004, when the ProNino mission was built. The man said he declined because he was embarrassed. The man said when he visited the mission in 2008, Maurizio asked him to accompany him to another section of the orphanage. He said Maurizio offered him $200 to photograph him undressing and touching himself. Under questioning from prosecutors, the man testified Maurizio didn't speak Spanish so he pulled out a calculator from a fanny pack that he always carried cash in on trips and typed $200 on it. “I told him no,” the man said. 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 before U.S. District Court Judge Kim Gibso
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