PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review
By Paul Peirce
Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2015
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 during his testimony before a federal jury in Johnstown.
Prosecutors expected the alleged victim, who is now 24, to testify that he was given gifts in exchange for sex with the Rev. Joseph Maurizio Jr., 70, of Windber. who was a benefactor of the orphanage from 2004 to 2009.
Prosecutors have shown numerous photographs of the alleged victim during the trial, usually shirtless and holding gifts that he testified Maurizio gave him on visits to the mission.
While he was on the witness stand on the fourth day of the trial, the alleged victim 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, “I was under so much pressure … I lied.”
“Father Joe never abused me. Father Joe was a gentleman,” he said.
On cross-examination, the man conceded that he did tell federal agents that Maurizio had anal sex with him and that the priest 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 felt confused. I made it all up, just to get out of there.”
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