BRISTOL (CT)
The Advocate
Associated Press
January 27, 2005
BRISTOL, Conn. -- A former youth pastor and basketball coach at Central Christian Academy in Southington has pleaded no contest to charges of sexually assaulting a teenage student.
James J. McCoy, 31, could get up to two years in prison and three years of probation when he is sentenced in March in Superior Court.
McCoy was originally charged July 1, 2003 with second-degree sexual assault. But that charge was downgraded to two counts of fourth-degree sexual assault before McCoy entered his plea on Monday.
The victim, in a civil lawsuit, has accused McCoy of repeatedly sexually abusing and assaulting her over a period of six months in the late 1990s. She was 17 at the time, according to the civil suit.
Leaders of the church and school have said previously that they heard reports about of the relationship in 2001, and immediately obtained McCoy's resignation after he "admitted to immoral behavior."