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  Priest Gets Conditional Discharge in Mamaroneck Fondling Incident

By Rebecca Baker
The Journal News
January 12, 2010

http://www.lohud.com/article/20100112/NEWS02/1120391/-1/newsfront/Priest-gets-conditional-discharge-in-Mamaroneck-fondling-incident

WHITE PLAINS — The Rev. Richard Ordonez offered no apology in court today as he was given a conditional discharge for fondling a female parishioner at a Mamaroneck church.

The 38-year-old Ecuadorean cleric was sentenced in Westchester County Court two months after pleading guilty to forcible touching, a misdemeanor.

State Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Cohen, a county judge when he presided over Ordonez' case, returned from Orange County Court to pronounce sentence.

As a priest, shame on you," Cohen said. "As a counselor, shame on you. As a human being, shame on you."

Ordonez, who counseled the victim from Jan. 12-23, 2004, was accused of grabbing her breasts and trying to sexually abuse her at St. Vito's Roman Catholic Church on Underhill Avenue. She fled the counseling session and avoided him, authorities said.

Police said the woman came forward in September 2008 after learning that Ordonez, who had left the area, was returning to the parish.

Ordonez, who has no criminal record and was in this country legally with a green card, was arrested Dec. 8, 2008, at John F. Kennedy International Airport. He was about to board a plane with a one-way ticket to Ecuador. He knew he was under investigation and had given a statement to police two days earlier.

He was originally charged with felony counts of sex abuse and attempted sex abuse.

Under the terms of the sentence, he will not be supervised by probation and will not be registered as a sex offender. He has served more than half of his 500 hours of court-ordered community service and has a year to complete it. He must also stay away from the victim.

Parishioners from St. Vito's and Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Elmsford, where Ordonez had also served as a visiting priest, were in the courtroom to support him. Ordonez had been credited with reaching out to the Hispanic immigrant population, celebrating Mass in Spanish, English and Italian.

"I believe in him. I always believed in him," said Carmen Negron of Elmsford. "Our trust is in him."

Ordonez, a member of the Salesians order, had his privileges to serve as a priest revoked and he probably could not serve anywhere else, according to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.

Contact: rebaker@lohud.com

 
 

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