DUBUQUE — A priest in Florida that has ties to north-central Iowa has been accused of sexual abuse of a minor while he was serving as a priest at a Dubuque parish in the mid-1980s.

A news release from the Archdiocese of Dubuque says Father Leo Riley has been placed on administrative leave while a review board for the Archdiocese investigates the allegation.

Riley was ordained in Dubuque and served at more than a dozen different Iowa parishes, but has been a priest in Florida since 2002.

About a decade ago, a man accused Riley of abusing him in 1985 when he was an altar boy at the Church of the Resurrection in Dubuque. When the Archbishop of Dubuque announced that investigation was dropped, the archbishop said the best information available didn’t support a reasonable belief the man’s allegation was true.

This new allegation is from someone who says they were abused by Riley at the same church, sometime between 1985 and ’86. 

 Riley has been pastor of the San Antonio Church in Port Charlotte, Florida since 2019.

According to the website bishop-accountability.org, Riley’s assignment history also included serving at these north-central Iowa churches between 1982 to 1999: St. Mary’s in Roseville, St. Patrick’s in Buffalo Center, Sacred Heart in Woden, St. James in Forest City, St. Patrick’s in Lake Mills, St. Patrick’s in Dougherty, Holy Name in Rockford, Sacred Heart in Rockwell, and the Immaculate Conception Church in Charles City.