SANTA FE (NM)
Santa Fe New Mexican
March 1, 2019
By Rebecca Moss
The New Mexico Attorney General’s Office this week searched a trove of records at the Archdiocese of Santa Fe on two former Albuquerque priests accused of repeatedly raping a child over several years in the 1980s.
Both were identified by the Catholic Church as “credibly accused” sexual abusers.
The accuser, now 44, told investigators that the abuse began at Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church in Albuquerque. He alleges he was raped by then-Rev. Ronald Bruckner beginning in 1984, when he was 9.
According to a search warrant affidavit filed Thursday in state District Court in Albuquerque, the accuser said that within two years, the Rev. Robert Malloy also began raping him. The abuse extended for at least four years, the affidavit says, with the two men assaulting the boy not only on church property, but also in Albuquerque hotel rooms, at state parks and during church events.
Much of the abuse occurred during Boy Scouts trips throughout the New Mexico wilderness, the accuser told investigators, as both former priests had served as Scout leaders.
In addition to raping the boy, the affidavit says, the priests filmed him performing sexual acts.
The accuser spoke with the Attorney General’s Office investigators in a Feb. 15 interview, saying he had lived close to the church and that his family was deeply immersed in the church community.
Malloy, 61, denied the allegations Friday. “I can only say that I unequivocally deny all of it,” he said when reached by phone. “Nothing like that happened. It is very disturbing. That did not occur — at any time.”
He declined to comment on how he has spent his time since leaving the clergy in 1998, when he faced criminal charges of soliciting teen boys for prostitution.
Most of the counts were dismissed as part of a plea deal.
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