MORRISTOWN (NJ)
Daily Record [Morristown NJ]
October 15, 2025
By William Westhoven Morristown Daily Record
Facing potentially devastating punitive damages on top of a landmark $5 million verdict, the headmaster of the exclusive Delbarton School testified that another large monetary award “could put us out of business.”
The Rev. Michael Tidd’s testimony came on Oct. 14 at the start of the punitive hearing phase of a civil trial brought by a 1977 graduate of the all-boys’ Catholic school in Morris Township. The suit, one of dozens of abuse cases pending against Delbarton, names the school and the Order of St. Benedict of New Jersey, which oversees it, as defendants, along with the Rev. Richard Lott, the former OSBNJ monk accused of the assault.
All of the defendants denied wrongdoing. But last week, a six-person jury unanimously found the student’s accusations to be true and that the abuse caused him lifelong trauma. They also agreed with the defense argument that the OSBNJ was not negligent for what happened “through the lens of 1976,” when such abuse was thought to be rare and no policies were in place to deal with it.
Nevertheless, jurors awarded the now 65-year-old student – identified in court only as “T.M.” – $5 million in punitive damages, with Lott liable for 35% of the amount and the OSBNJ 65% liable. Any award over $500 requires a punitive damage hearing, in this case before the same jury.
Representing the defense, OSBNJ general counsel Kurt Krauss leaned on the jury’s denial of the negligence claim, telling them a punitive award was not required. He also reminded them that punitive damages “require a higher standard of proof” than their original verdict required. Without “clear and convincing evidence” of “evil-minded acts” or “reckless disregard for the consequences,” punitive damages were not appropriate, Krauss argued.
T.M.’s attorney, Michael Geibelson, called witnesses whose testimony underscored that for decades after 1977, when the Lott incident was reported, Delbarton lacked oversight or policies to punish offenders or limit the contact between students and accused sex abusers.
The former student testified during the trial that he wrote a letter to Abbot Brian Clarke, the order’s leader at the time after graduating in 1977. detailing the abuse by Lott. In a subsequent meeting with the abbot, T.M. said, Clarke told hm that Lott admitted the abuse and that Clarke “would take care of it.” Clarke, however, testified in a 2019 deposition that Lott denied the abuse, tying his hands in terms of discipline.
First on the stand for the punitive hearing was the OSBNJ’s current leader, Abbot Jonathan Licari, who has served as the temporary administrator of the order since 2022. He confirmed policies are now in place to protect students from such abuse that were not followed during a documented period from 1973 to 1978.
The jury also saw edited video of multiple depositions by Lori Albanese, a Delbarton case worker assigned in 2018 to act us a liaison between accusers, school officials and a victim’s advocate. Albanese confirmed the OSBNJ’s lack of oversight in the area of clergy sex abuse in greater detail, testifying that the order did not establish policies to deal with such cases until 2002. Those rules were not implemented until 2004, she said.
More: Can Delbarton recover from $5M sex assault verdict? ‘Stakes are high’ as jury reconvenes