Staff, wire reports
Federal immigration authorities have arrested a former St. James Catholic Church priest and are preparing to deport him to Mexico after he admitted to having unlawful sex with a 16-year-old altar girl.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say agents arrested Hector Coria, 46, at his home in Davis on Friday.
He was being held without bond at a county facility while his case is reviewed by an immigration court.
Davis police arrested Coria last May on suspicion of engaging in sexual activity with the girl on multiple occasions, including an incident in the church rectory. He later pleaded guilty to a single count of unlawful sexual intercourse, for which he was sentenced to three years of probation and 90 days in jail and ordered to undergo sex-offender counseling.
Coria had been in the country legally, but that changed when the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, which characterized Coria’s conduct as “a crime and a sin,” had him stripped him of his priesthood following his conviction.