{"id":218445,"date":"2026-04-04T07:55:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T07:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/218445\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T07:55:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T07:55:15","slug":"sex-abuse-trial-against-former-dubuque-priest-drags-on-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/218445\/","title":{"rendered":"Sex abuse trial against former Dubuque priest drags on in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG\/WWSB) &#8211; A Florida lawsuit over sexual abuse claims against a Dubuque priest has been delayed again despite the priest\u2019s death.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">A Florida judge this week granted a motion to continue the civil trial against Rev. Leo Riley and the Catholic Church Diocese of Venice. Attorneys argued over the production of documents and how the case will proceed after Riley died in December 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Riley has been accused of abusing multiple children in both Iowa and Florida. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcrg.com\/2025\/12\/19\/alleged-abuse-victim-speaks-out-following-fr-leo-rileys-death\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.kcrg.com\/2025\/12\/19\/alleged-abuse-victim-speaks-out-following-fr-leo-rileys-death\/\">A criminal case against him in Iowa was dismissed citing statute of limitations.<\/a> Riley had served in the Dubuque area in the 1980s before being transferred to Florida. A John Doe plantiff filed the current lawsuit in 2020 claiming Riley had abused him as a child in Florida.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">In court last week, the plaintiff\u2019s attorney, Damian Mallard, asked the judge to compel what he described as a complete production of records.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWhat I\u2019m asking for, Your Honor, is an order that compels these documents as soon as the Court would allow,\u201d Mallard said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Mallard claimed that he has received a large amount of the records, but not the complete records needed from both the Diocese of Venice and the Diocese of Dubuque, where Riley faced another lawsuit filed in 2024. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Attorneys for the Diocese of Venice told the court they have already turned over their records.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe have previously given him Father Riley\u2019s entire file,\u201d the diocese\u2019s attorney said, adding that the Diocese of Venice and the Diocese of Dubuque are \u201ctwo separate\u201d entities and that any additional documents may be held elsewhere, out of the control of the Diocese of Venice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The judge pressed both sides on what documents are still needed ahead of a deposition scheduled for Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI\u2019m most interested right now in whatever it is you think they have that you need for Monday\u2019s deposition,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The judge also emphasized the case will be pushed forward quickly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">PREVIOUS COVERAGE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/2025\/12\/17\/diocese-confirms-death-priest-facing-abuse-lawsuits\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/2025\/12\/17\/diocese-confirms-death-priest-facing-abuse-lawsuits\/\" target=\"_blank\">Sarasota judge cancels civil trial involving Diocese of Venice<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cEverybody needs to understand we need to expedite the discovery. It needs to happen as soon as possible because we\u2019re getting this case to trial,\u201d the judge said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The original trial date was canceled one day after Riley\u2019s death in December last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">After the case was approved to move forward, the Diocese of Venice released a statement saying it would continue to contest the allegations and reiterated its policy stance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThe Diocese of Venice remains committed to a zero-tolerance policy for sexual abuse of a minor or a vulnerable adult,\u201d Karen Schwarz, the diocese\u2019s director of communications, said. \u201cThe Diocese of Venice will have no further comment on this matter while the litigation is pending.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Mallard said Riley\u2019s death will not stop the case from moving forward. Saying that Riley\u2019s testimony has been video recorded and can proceed with that portion of the suit as planned. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The next scheduled steps in the case include the deposition on Monday and a technical response due next week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Riley began serving in the Diocese of Venice in September 2002. He served as parochial vicar at St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Port Charlotte, Sacred Heart Parish in Punta Gorda and St. Peter the Apostle Parish in Naples. Riley also served as pastor of San Antonio Parish in Port Charlotte from January 2019 to May 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG\/WWSB) &#8211; A Florida lawsuit over sexual abuse claims against a Dubuque priest has been&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3049,14837,1183,3757,2353,7071,2302,99193,5507,47604,28,30,29,36264,5733,833,99192,73566,76932,4722,7551,1934],"class_list":{"0":"post-218445","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-abuse","9":"tag-boy","10":"tag-case","11":"tag-catholic","12":"tag-child","13":"tag-children","14":"tag-church","15":"tag-civil","16":"tag-death","17":"tag-dubuque","18":"tag-florida","19":"tag-florida-headlines","20":"tag-florida-news","21":"tag-hearing","22":"tag-iowa","23":"tag-lawsuit","24":"tag-leo","25":"tag-priest","26":"tag-riley","27":"tag-sex","28":"tag-sexual","29":"tag-trial"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}