Diocese: Initial lawsuit had factual errors

PORT CHARLOTTE — As a suspended priest is scheduled for an Iowa trial later this month, the Diocese of Venice is reiterating its stance on a civil case regarding the defendant.

Karen Schwarz, the diocese's communications director, told The Daily Sun in an email that Rev. Leo P. Riley was suspended last year after allegations of misconduct emerged from his time in Dubuque, Iowa.

Schwarz contacted The Daily Sun to clarify the timeline, after reading an article which described Riley's 2023 suspension as happening after a Charlotte County-based civil lawsuit resurfaced.

The email also noted that the civil lawsuit's initial complaint "alleged dates and events that could not have happened as presented, and the allegations were not factually correct."

The civil lawsuit has since been amended, including dropping one named respondent — music teacher Alan Klispie — from the case in 2022.

Riley was arrested in April and extradited to Iowa regarding five counts of capital sexual battery regarding alleged acts in the 1980s. He is scheduled to face a jury trial starting on July 30.

In her email, Schwarz also noted that Riley was placed on administrative leave for the county in 2015 when an earlier allegation out of Dubuque was made.

At the time, according to Schwarz, officials in Dubuque later said the charges were unsubstantiated and Riley was placed on active service again.

"Further, the Diocese requires all clergy, employees and volunteers working with children and vulnerable adults to undergo and pass a level 2 (FBI) fingerprint background screening before beginning assignment, and every five years thereafter," the email read. "Father Riley was screened and passed."

Schwarz also said that despite factual inaccuracies in the civil complaint from 2020, the Diocese still notified Charlotte County prosecutors about the situation per diocese policy.

"To our knowledge, no action was taken," the email read.

The plaintiff in the 2020 lawsuit alleged that Riley engaged in a pattern of sexual abuse while he attended St. Charles Borromeo School in the 1990s.

The allegation also initially included allegations against Klispie, until the plaintiff released him as a defendant in the case.

While St. Charles Borromeo Church is in Port Charlotte, the lawsuit was filed in Sarasota County as that is where the Diocese of Venice is headquartered.

Schwarz noted that Diocese policy stipulates that a staff member, including clergy, be placed on administrative leave when an allegation of abusing a minor or vulnerable adult is made against them "with a reasonable belief that it is true."

The Diocese then conducts an investigation of the allegations, while notifying the local State Attorney's Office of the situation.