BUFFALO (NY)
The Buffalo News
July 30, 2018
By Jay Tokasz
The Buffalo Diocese cleared a Dunkirk priest of sexual abuse last month without talking with a second accuser who alleged he was molested as a child by the priest.
Monday, the diocese interviewed the second man who alleges that the Rev. Dennis G. Riter abused him.
For now, Riter will be allowed to remain at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church, a diocese spokesman said.
Monday’s interview with Riter’s second accuser happened in Amherst, a month after the diocese determined that a previous allegation, lodged in March against Riter, was not substantiated. The second accuser alleges Riter abused him in the rectory of Queen of All Saints Church in Lackawanna. His lawyer said he has a witness of the alleged abuse who wrote a letter to diocesan officials about it more than 25 years ago.
The diocese suspended Riter from ministry while a former assistant district attorney working for the diocese investigated a claim that the priest had molested a teenage boy in a South Buffalo church rectory in the late 1990s.
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