Our coverage partner KCRG reports three new civil cases have been filed against the Dubuque Catholic Archdiocese and a former Dubuque priest accused of sexually abusing boys.
The new civil cases were filed this week in Charlotte County, Florida brought forward by anonymous former altar boys from Iowa claiming Leo Riley sexually abused them in Dubuque in the 1980s.
Riley now works at a congregation in Florida. He sat for a disposition last month in a separate lawsuit there from a John Doe claiming Riley had sexually abused him in Florida.
In the complaint, the plaintiff alleges Riley “sought and gained parental consent for the plaintiff to participate in counseling and other activities, and to spend time alone with him.”
It goes on to say Riley would force the minor to drink alcohol and then engage in harmful and illegal sexual contact with the plaintiff.
The alleged victim says the abuse started in 1985, when Riley was the pastor at Resurrection Church in Dubuque.
The accusations mirror a criminal case filed in Dubuque against Riley in April on five counts of sexual abuse. That case was dismissed because the statute of limitations had elapsed.