By Victor Ochieng
Pastor Robert Coy, formerly the entertainment director of a Las Vegas casino and later the leader of one of Florida’s largest megachurches, has been accused of s*xually abusing a 4-year-old girl.
In April 2014, Coy resigned under pressure from Calvary Chapel under what the church referred to as ‘moral failing.’ Come 2015, the former pastor’s name was forwarded to the police as the person who molested the child, reported Miami News Times.
However, no charges have been preferred against Coy.
In 2015, a California woman reported to Coral Springs police that Coy molested her daughter for a long time during his time at the Calvary Chapel. Police reports indicate that the woman’s daughter, who was already a teenager at the time of the report, confirmed the story.
The victim told the police that Coy used to have her offer him oral s*x and touch his manhood even as he also inappropriately touched her. The abuse continued until she became a teenager, she recounted. Throughout the time of the abuse, she never told her family about it.
Police reported that in April 2016, the victim visited Coral Springs police department and told them she “had an experience with God and has found forgiveness.” She further requested the police officers to destroy all the previous reports she’d given regarding her molestation case.
After the police told her they couldn’t destroy records, she left.
Coy, the “superstar preacher,” founded Fort Lauderdale church in 1985. Working together with his then wife, he developed a 75-acre site on Cypress Creek Road, transforming it into a franchise with nine locations in Florida. The church grew to boast of more than 20,000 worshipers.
Coy also had his time in the world before thinking of starting a church. In his own account, he worked as a record promoter for Capitol Records right after completing his high school. Speaking to Miami Herald in 2000, Coy said he started using alcohol and cocaine after he realized that the rock music lifestyle was a little too fast-paced for him and, therefore, overwhelming. “In the rock ’n’ roll scene, you meet people of power and influence and wealth, and they have the same kind of problems everybody else has,” he said.
By the age of 22, he was working at a Las Vegas casino called Jolly Trolley, an all-girl place, but that too didn’t give him happiness.
Then in the early 1980s, he encountered religion and chose to transform his life. He married Diane with whom God blessed them with two children. He also eventually became a pastor.
His leadership in Calvary Chapel transformed the church into a contemporary outfit, putting it under a personality-driven leadership. “There are pages in my Bible I wish weren’t in there, because some sins are fun. But they’re only fun for a season,” he told the Herald in 2000.
Coy served Calvary until 2014 when he resigned after s*xual harassment allegations were brought against him. Another pastor said during a service held two weeks after Coy left that the former pastor “committed adultery” and “committed s*xual immorality, habitually, through pornography,” reported Sun Sentinel in a 2014 story.
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