PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review
By Paul Peirce
Saturday, Sept. 19, 2015
A federal jury in Johnstown will begin deliberations Monday in the case of a Somerset County priest accused of sexually assaulting boys in a Honduran orphanage without hearing testimony from the priest.
Attorneys for the Rev. Joseph D. Maurizio Jr., 70, of Windber abruptly rested their defense Friday afternoon without calling the former pastor of Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Central City to the witness stand to testify on his behalf.
Maurizio is accused of traveling to Central America on mission trips for his self-run nonprofit, Humanitarian Interfaith Ministries, from 2004 to 2009 to have sex with orphaned boys.
Federal officials said Maurizio gave boys at the ProNino orphanage cash and candy in exchange for watching them shower, having sex or fondling them.
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.
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