Plum man guilty of abusing adoptee

A Plum man serving a 15-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing a Russian girl he adopted in 1998 was found guilty yesterday in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court of 11 more counts of child sexual abuse stemming from the same case.

In an unusual proceeding, Matthew Mancuso, 47, was found guilty in what Deputy District Attorney Laura Ditka said was a stipulated nonjury trial before Common Pleas Judge Donna Jo McDaniel.

This means that Mancuso presented no defense and did not contest the charges after Ditka presented her case and witnesses.

McDaniel found him guilty of rape of a child, aggravated indecent assault, unlawful contact with a minor, unlawful restraint, incest, corruption of a minor, child endangerment, and two counts each of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child and indecent assault of a child under age 13.

Ditka withdrew charges of sexual abuse of a child by photography and selling obscene items.

Mancuso will be sentenced Nov. 14. His defense attorney, Stanley Greenfield, said Mancuso faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 additional years after his federal term has been served.

"[Yesterday's proceeding] is sometimes called a 'slow guilty plea," Greenfield said yesterday.

By not pleading guilty to the state charges, Mancuso has preserved his right to appeal the prosecution, Greenfield said.

McDaniel denied Greenfield's motion to dismiss the charges on grounds that he had not been brought to trial within 365 days.

He argued that since county officials first arrested and formally arraigned Mancuso in May 2003, then withdrew the charges a month later in deference to the federal case, that the 365 days had expired.

After Mancuso's federal conviction last year, and after he already had begun serving his time, photos of him involved in sex acts with the girl began reappearing on the Internet. The girl, now 12, has been adopted again and lives with her adoptive mother.

Investigators in Canada seized about 200 of the photos after they appeared on the Internet there.

Federal authorities in Florida, where some of the photos were taken, and in Pennsylvania, traced the origin to Mancuso, leading to the state charges being filed.

Florida officials also are considering criminal charges against Mancuso.

In 1998, when the girl was 5, Mancuso adopted her from a Russian orphanage through an agency in New Jersey. Investigators believe the abuse started with her first night with Mancuso when he had her sleeping nude with him in his bed.

Federal agents from the Crimes Against Children Task Force, during a routine investigation of child pornography, raided Mancuso's house in May 2003. They found the girl still was living there at that time.