PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
April 5, 2016
By Torsten Ove / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A Catholic priest convicted of molesting orphans in Honduras has paid $70,000 in court-ordered fines and restitution costs that were the subject of a tussle with the U.S. Attorney’s office last week.
Federal prosecutors had asked for a judge to freeze $1.2 million in assets held by Joseph Maurizio because they said he hadn’t paid the fine and they feared he was trying to transfer money and property to a relative.
But his lawyers have produced papers showing he has paid the money and U.S. District Judge Kim Gibson in Johnstown last week rejected the freeze request as moot.
Maurizio, 70, was sentenced March 1 to 17 years in federal prison and ordered to pay the fines within 10 days of sentencing. Prosecutors said he didn’t and also said he had deeded 42 acres in Paint Township and Windber to relatives for $1. In addition, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Haines said he had told his niece in a recorded jailhouse call that he intended leave his accounts with a “zero balance.”
But Maurizio’s lawyers later produced documents indicating he’d paid the money, saying there was no “malicious intent to not comply” with the judge’s order.
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