PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review
By Paul Peirce
Monday, Sept. 14, 2015
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.
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