DUBUQUE (IA)
Telegraph Herald [Dubuque IA]
May 14, 2024
By Maia Bond
A $500,000 bond has been set for a former Dubuque priest accused of sexually abusing multiple boys in the 1980s.
The Rev. Leo P. Riley, 68, of Port Charlotte, Fla., is charged in Iowa District Court of Dubuque County with five counts of second-degree sexual abuse. He made his initial appearance in court Monday morning after being arrested in Florida last month.
In addition to setting the cash-only bond, Iowa District Associate Judge Robert Richter determined Riley will not be allowed to leave Iowa while court proceedings continue.
Richter ordered Riley to wear an ankle monitor and be subject to pretrial supervision by the Iowa Department of Corrections. Richter also imposed a no-contact order for each of the alleged victims and witnesses and barred Riley from having any contact with minors.
Court documents state that four people have said they were sexually abused by Riley from 1985 to 1986, while he was associate pastor of Church of the Resurrection in Dubuque.
Dubuque police were contacted by the Archdiocese of Dubuque’s Office for the Protection of Children in May 2023 about reports the archdiocese had received of alleged sexual abuse in Dubuque from the 1980s.
Four alleged victims were identified in the subsequent investigation, all of them altar boys at Resurrection Parish and under age 12 at the time of the alleged abuse. Each reported being abused by Riley, and two told investigators Riley also forced them to engage in sexual activity with other boys on parish grounds, documents state.
Court documents state that in an April interview with Florida law enforcement, Riley denied all allegations against him.
After Monday’s initial appearance, Riley’s attorney Guy Cook said in an interview with multiple media outlets that he will file a motion to challenge the bond.
“Appreciate that these charges, no matter how salacious, are proof of nothing,” he said. “Father Leo Riley is to those people who know him well, a person of upstanding moral character, an honest man and a person who would not commit these kinds of acts.”
Cook said Riley passed two polygraph examinations regarding alleged misconduct at Resurrection, one recently and one a few years ago.
Dubuque County Attorney Scott J. Nelson declined to comment.
Riley was ordained a priest of the Dubuque archdiocese in 1982 and served in the city of Dubuque from 1983 to 1986 before moving on to other parishes within the archdiocese.
Riley requested a move to the Diocese of Venice, Fla., in 2002, and became a priest of that diocese in 2005. Officials in both Dubuque and Florida previously stated there were no known accusations against Riley at that time.
In Iowa, there is no statute of limitations for criminal charges related to sexual abuse of minors. Court documents state that each of the men reported having repressed the memories of the abuse until later in life.
Documents state that one victim told his mother at the time that Riley was abusing boys at Resurrection School, though he did not then tell her that he was a victim. Investigators last year interviewed the woman, who recalled volunteering at the parish in the mid-’80s.
“While she was cleaning the church with the young boys from the school, the boys pushed another boy into a closet, and the boy looked very scared,” documents state. “When she asked the boys what was going on, they made comments similar to ‘Gotta watch out and be careful not to be alone with the priest in there’ and ‘The priest will push you into the closet and do things to you.’”
The woman said she reached out to the Resurrection School principal to report the boys’ comments and that weeks later she was informed Riley was transferred to another parish, documents state. Per Riley’s assignment list, he was transferred in 1986 from Church of the Resurrection to a parish in Floyd County, Iowa.
Riley’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 22 at the Dubuque County Courthouse.
Officials with the Archdiocese of Dubuque did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.
Maia Bond is a Report For America corps member.
maia.bond@thmedia.com