LOS ANGELES (CA)
Burbank Leader
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles dismissed sexual abuse charges filed against a San Gabriel Valley priest after an investigation determined that the charges were without merit.
The lawsuit, filed Dec. 31, 2003 in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleged that Msgr. Patrick Reilly was one of two priests who sexually abused Michael Matthew Gallardo, now 31, between 1980 and 1984 while he was a student at Sacred Heart School in Covina. Reilly was a priest at the parish for 13 years before being transferred to St. Robert Bellarmine in Burbank.
The other priest named in the lawsuit, Harold DeJonghe, accused of molesting Gallardo from 1980 until 1982, died in October 1998.