BishopAccountability.org

Ex-coach suing Delbarton and ex-headmaster accused in sex cases

By Ben Horowitz
NJ.com
July 6, 2016

http://www.nj.com/morris/index.ssf/2016/07/ex-coach_suing_delbarton_and_ex-headmaster.html

Marc MacNaughton, a former teacher and track coach, removes evidence boxes from Superior Court in Morristown after he and his attorneys appeared in court to pursue lawsuit against the Delbarton School and former headmaster Luke Travers. Morristown, NJ 7/6/16
Photo by Robert Sciarrino

Marc MacNaughton, a former teacher and track coach, removes evidence boxes from Superior Court in Morristown after he and his attorneys appeared in court to pursue lawsuit against the Delbarton School and former headmaster Luke Travers. Morristown, NJ 7/6/16
Photo by Robert Sciarrino

Marc MacNaughton, a former teacher and track coach, appears in court to pursue a lawsuit against the Delbarton School and former headmaster Luke Travers. Morristown, NJ 7/6/16
Photo by Robert Sciarrino

5 / 9 (L-R) Marc MacNaughton, a former teacher and track coach, talks with his attorney Noel Crowley as they appear in court to pursue a lawsuit against the Delbarton School and former headmaster Luke Travers. Morristown, NJ 7/6/16
Photo by Robert Sciarrino

Rev. Luke L. Travers, headmaster at the The Delbarton School. Morristown, NJ 5/12/2005

Rev. Luke Travers, soon to be to the new headmaster at Delbarton School in New Jersey, is seen outside Longfellow Hall at Harvard Unversity in Cambridge, Mass., April 8, 1999.
Photo by Peter Lennihan

MORRISTOWN — A lawsuit by a former track coach and teacher at the Delbarton School, accusing the school's former headmaster of retaliating against him repeatedly after the coach reported he was inappropriately touching members of his team, is headed for a trial date in the coming weeks in Superior Court in Morristown.

The ex-coach and teacher, Marc MacNaughton, filed the lawsuit against the elite boys' school in Morris Township and its former headmaster, Father Luke Travers, after he was fired from his job and after the school allegedly gave him negative references when he applied for other positions.

Those references came despite a "non-disparagement" agreement signed when MacNaughton was terminated, his lawsuit contends.

The agreement over MacNaughton's termination was signed in 2005 and Travers was later accused in several lawsuits of sexually abusing four Delbarton students.

Travers served as headmaster from 1999 to 2007 but the allegations of sexual misconduct were not widely publicized until 2012. Travers was removed from his position but criminal charges have not been filed against him because of the age or nature of the charges.

Many of the accusations of sex abuse of students dated from the 1980s and 1990s, when Travers was working at the school but was not yet headmaster.

Although Travers has not made a public comment on the charges, his then-attorney, Gerard Hanlon, in 2012 said Travers had passed two lie detector tests in which he was "adamant about what he hadn't done."

MacNaughton filed the lawsuit in 2011, accusing the school and Travers of breach of contract and interference with economic advantage.

The suit was dismissed by a judge in Superior Court in 2013, but MacNaughton appealed that decision and in 2015, an appeals court overturned that decision and returned the case to Superior Court for trial.

On Wednesday, final pre-trial motions were expected to be heard, but the court session was postponed to Monday.

Attorneys spent a few hours in private conferences Wednesday morning with Acting Assignment Judge Rosemary Ramsay, but were reported to be far apart on terms of a possible settlement.

On Monday, Ramsay is expected to assign the case to a judge who will hear the final pre-trial motions and a jury trial.

Travers' attorney, John Grossi, and Delbarton's attorney, Donald Okner, both declined to comment on the case.

MacNaughton worked for two years at Delbarton, according to his attorney, Noel Crowley. MacNaughton was winter and spring track coach, freshman football coach and a teacher.

He reported to his supervisors during the 2004-2005 school year that two members of his track team told him Travers had made them "feel uncomfortable" by "excessive hugging and patting their buttocks," according to the appeals court decision.

In March 2005, Travers told MacNaughton he was terminated, the court wrote. Travers initially did not give a reason, but later said it was as part of a "reduction in force," the court wrote.

In the non-disparagement agreement that was part of the termination settlement, the court wrote, MacNaughton and Delbarton agreed they would "refrain from making disparaging statements regarding each other."

However, MacNaughton said, "senior staff members" at Delbarton made disparaging remarks when he applied for other jobs.

When MacNaugton applied in 2010 for a position at Asbury Park High School as a permanent substitute and coach, the athletic director at Asbury called Delbarton for a reference but was told, "He's crazy. Don't touch him!" the court wrote.

The Delbarton official said MacNaughton had "crossed Father Luke" and that "Father Luke can be vindictive."

Also, the court wrote, when MacNaughton applied for a job at Morris Catholic High School in 2006, he was made a formal offer as assistant football coach and physical education teacher, but MacNaughton said, he was told the offer "was withdrawn because of the Delbarton situation."

In a ruling that was later overturned, a Superior Court judge ruled that that there was no breach of contract because MacNaughton could not prove he actually would have been hired by either Asbury Park High or Morris Catholic.

The attorneys for Delbarton and Travers argued that in the case of Asbury Park High, MacNaughton did not have the credentials to be a public school teacher, despite the fact that he taught and coached at Delbarton. MacNaughton had only an associate's degree in science from the County College of Morris and a substitute teacher's credential certificate.

The appeals court rejected those arguments and ruled that MacNaughton could go to trial on the issues of breach of contract and interference with economic advantage, and sent the case back to Superior Court for trial.

Contact: bhorowitz@njadvancemedia.com




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