A former scholar who says he was sexually abused a long time in the past on the elite catholic Delbarton Faculty in New Jersey was awarded $5 million by a jury this week.
The decision on Wednesday got here after a five-week trial in Morris County Superior Court docket, the place the nameless sufferer, T.M., claimed a monk from the Benedictine Catholic center and highschool sexually abused him on New Years Eve in 1975.
Delbarton, positioned in tony Morristown, the place tuition is $48,725 a yr, stated in a statement this week that they have been “extraordinarily disillusioned within the verdict on this trial.”
Along with expressing “real compassion for any sufferer of abuse,” Delbarton and church officers stated that they “don't imagine damages awarded on this case are both honest or cheap.”
“Crucially, the jury unanimously discovered that St. Mary's Abbey and Delbarton Faculty didn't violate the New Jersey Youngster Intercourse Abuse Act,” the letter written by St. Mary's Abbot Johnathan Licari and Delbarton headmaster, Father Michael Tidd, “that means we didn't know of the alleged abuse and there was no intentional misconduct.”
The jury will reconvene subsequent week to find out punitive damages in T.M.'s go well with.
It's the first Catholic clergy intercourse abuse lawsuit to go to trial following a 2019 New Jersey look-back regulation permitting decades-old youngster intercourse abuse instances to be filed, and the primary of almost 40 pending clergy sexual abuse lawsuits towards Delbarton to succeed in a verdict.
These intercourse abuse allegations embrace a number of clergy members on the college — even a former headmaster.
Most not too long ago, a 2021 lawsuit filed by a former scholar claims that he was raped and abused greater than 150 instances by a trio of monks as a Delbarton seventh grader within the Nineteen Seventies.
“I'm very proud that the sufferer stood his floor and determined to inform his story,” Mark Crawford, New Jersey director for the Survivors Community of these Abused by Clergymen, told NorthJersey.com.
“This could ship a strong message to all establishments that they need to take allegations critically,” Crawford stated. “Survivors shouldn't be afraid to face up and inform your fact, as a result of justice will prevail.”
A brand new grand jury investigation is more likely to moreover study if a former prime Delbarton clergy chief, Auxiliary Bishop Elias R. Lorenzo — who may very well be the state's subsequent cardinal — performed a job in overlaying up accusations that rolled in whereas he helped helm the varsity, in response to state leaders, advocates and an lawyer representing dozens of Delbarton accusers.
Delbarton boasts a protracted checklist of well-known alumni, together with “Recreation of Thrones” star Peter Dinklage, Yankees beginning shortstop Anthony Volpe and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's sons.
Representatives for T.M. declined to remark.
