IOWA
KCRG
By Katie Wiedemann, KCRG-TV9 July 14, 2015
DUBUQUE — The Catholic Archdiocese said it has cleared one of its former priests of sex abuse allegations from the mid-1980s.
Earlier this year, Jeff Buchheit accused Reverend Leo Riley of abusing him while he was an altar boy in 1985. That year, Riley was serving as a Church of the Resurrection associate pastor.
Buchheit made the claims after the statute of limitations had expired, meaning no criminal case was possible. However, any time a priest or former priest in the Archdiocese of Dubuque is accused of sexual abuse, its Clergy Abuse Review Board investigates. The board draws its members from a wide range of disciplines.
“The head of the review board right now is a judge,” said Archbishop Michael Jackels. “We have former police investigators and people involved in the mental health area.” Jackels added no Archdiocese employees are allowed on the review board.
But the President of Iowa Survivor’s Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) takes issue with one aspect of the board’s composition: the lack of abuse survivors.
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