By Wallice J. de la Vega • Catholic News Service • Posted July 18, 2016

MAYAGUEZ, Puerto Rico (CNS) — A former priest from the Diocese of Mayaguez who originally faced two felony charges of improper sexual behavior was sentenced on one of those charges July 14.

Then-Father Floyd McCoy Jordan, 65, served as vicar of the Basilica of Our Lady of Montserrat in Hormigueros at the time of the complaint.

“McCoy Jordan was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being unanimously found guilty by a jury last June for committing lewd acts against a 14-year-old minor from 2013-2014 in the municipality of Hormigueros,” read a June 14 press release from the Puerto Rico Department of Justice.

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The original second charge, reportedly related to having “improperly touched private parts” of a 19-year-old, was dismissed at the March preliminary hearing.

After the first complaint, Mayaguez Bishop Alvaro Corrada del Rio took immediate action to remove McCoy Jordan from his post and suspend him from priestly ministry.

“Father Floyd McCoy, parochial vicar of the Shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat in Hormigueros, has been suspended precautionarily due to a charge of improper conduct with a minor,” said Bishop Corrada del Rio in a letter read in all weekend Masses Sept. 27-28, 2014.

At McCoy Jordan’s trial, Msgr. Gonzalo Diaz Hernandez, current pastor and rector at Our Lady of Montserrat, testified as to what the victim told him. According to Msgr. Diaz Hernandez’s testimony, McCoy Jordan took the victim out for meals and had the minor at his house for hot chocolate, each time making sexual advances, in addition to other instances.

In July 2015 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ordered Bishop Corrada del Rio to hold an administrative penal process against McCoy Jordan, “accused of having committed several serious crimes against the Sixth Commandment with minors and other serious crimes against the Sixth Commandment with adults.”

Found guilty of all charges, the priest was laicized June 2.

“We communicate that Mr. Floyd L. McCoy Jordan, a priest of the Archdiocese of San Juan who works at the Diocese of Mayaguez, by this decision is no longer clergy of the Catholic Church and cannot exercise any ministerial office in the same,” said the formal decree issued by Bishop Corrada del Rio.