NEWARK (NJ)
NBC News [New York NY]
October 9, 2025
By Corky Siemaszko
A former student at the elite Delbarton School in New Jersey who said he was sexually assaulted a half-century ago by a monk at the school has been awarded $5 million in damages.
The historic verdict in the first civil trial against the Catholic Church in New Jersey was reached by a panel of four women and two men Wednesday after less than two days of deliberation.
“We are extremely disappointed in the verdict in this trial,” the school said in a statement shortly after the verdict was announced. “We do not believe that the damages awarded are either fair or reasonable, and our legal representatives are considering all legal options.”
There was no immediate comment from the former student, who had been identified only as T.M. during the five-week trial in Morris County Superior Court, or his lawyers who have been barred by the judge from speaking publicly about the case.
Nor is the trial over. The jurors will return Tuesday to determine whether the Order of St. Benedict of New Jersey, which runs the school, should also pay punitive damages to T.M., who was 15 when he was assaulted.
Despite the passage of time, the jury agreed unanimously that T.M. had been assaulted and found that the Rev. Richard Lott, who remains a priest but is no longer a monk at Delbarton, was liable for 35% of the compensatory damages.
The all-boys Catholic prep school in northern New Jersey, and its connected monastery, St. Mary’s Abbey, are responsible for the rest of the compensatory damages, or $3.25 million, the school said in its statement.
“Crucially, the jury unanimously found that St. Mary’s Abbey and Delbarton School did not violate the New Jersey Child Sex Abuse Act, meaning we did not know of the alleged abuse and there was no intentional misconduct,” the school’s statement said.
But one of the crucial pieces of evidence introduced at the trial was a 2018 deposition from the late Abbott Brian Clarke in which he admitted destroying the letter T.M. sent him accusing Lott of assault “because it’s bad for the reputation of a school when there is sexual abuse associated with it.”
T.M.’s case is the first of 39 pending abuse cases to go to trial against Delbarton, where the tuition is $48,725 a year. The Morristown school boasts well-known alumni such as New York Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe, “Game of Thrones” star Peter Dinklage and the sons of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
Now 65, T.M. also accused the Benedictine order of “enabling that abuse” in the lawsuit, which was filed earlier this year and named as defendants the school, the abbey, the monks and Lott.
All the defendants denied the allegations.
On the stand, T.M. alleged that Lott plied him with liquor at an off-campus party on New Year’s Eve 1975 before driving him to the barn on the grounds of Delbarton where Lott lived. He said he was “tipsy” when Lott pulled down his pants and performed oral sex on him.