Guard Testifies on Behalf of Somerset County Priest

By Paul Peirce
The Tribune-Review
September 17, 2015

http://triblive.com/news/somerset/9105199-74/maurizio-guard-orphanage#axzz3m5NQw0jn

A longtime security guard at a Honduran orphanage told federal jurors in Johnstown on Thursday that he never heard complaints from any boys about a Somerset County priest on trial for sexual assaults and never saw the priest inappropriately touch a boy.

The security guard, identified as Jose Lucas, worked at the ProNino orphanage from 2000 to 2010 when the Rev. Joseph D. Maurizio of Windber allegedly molested and had sex with some of the boys during visits.

Maurizio, 70, was the pastor of Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Central City until his arrest Sept. 25 on multiple federal charges.

Maurizio is accused of traveling to Central America for his self-run nonprofit, Humanitarian Interfaith Ministries, between 2004 and 2009 to have sex with orphaned boys.

Federal officials said Maurizio gave the boys cash and candy in exchange for watching them shower, having sex with or fondling them.

Maurizio's attorney, Steven Passarello of Altoona, asked Jose Lucas whether he ever heard complaints from boys after the priest visited the orphanage. The man answered in Spanish, “No. Never.”

“I knew him. He was a great man and helped the poor in our country,” the former guard testified with the assistance of an interpreter.

Passarello asked the guard about one of the Honduran men who testified for the government and said Maurizio offered him money to photograph him nude on two occasions.

The guard said he knows the man, who came to the orphanage in 2004 because he was homeless and worked there in 2009 after he turned 18.

“He came back to work there, but he was fired for being too tough on the children at the foundation,” Jose Lucas told jurors.

During cross-examination, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Haines asked the guard whether he was fired five years ago by orphanage officials after allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced. Haines asked Jose Lucas if it is true that Honduran investigators discovered he was instructing boys at the home not to tell about sexual abuse by Maurizio.

“No. That's not true, and anyone who says that is a liar,” the witness said.

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.

He has pleaded not guilty to all counts.

On Wednesday, when the government rested its case, Passarello asked Judge Kim Gibson to dismiss all eight criminal charges.

Passarello pointed to one man who recanted his allegations on the witness stand and a second who told an investigator for Maurizio that he made up the abuse allegation. He maintained prosecutors failed to specifically tie any money raised by Maurizio's foundation to buying sexual favors from the Hondurans as alleged in the indictment.

On Thursday, Gibson said he has taken Passarello's motion “under advisement” while the defense presents its case.

Passarello has not indicated whether Maurizio will take the stand in his own defense.

The trial begins its seventh day Friday.

Maurizio has been held in the Cambria County Jail since his arrest.

Paul Peirce is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-850-2860 or ppeirce@tribweb.com.