Judge denies motion for sanc­tions in Del­bar­ton clergy abuse trial

NEWARK (NJ)
NorthJersey.com [Woodland Park NJ]

May 30, 2026

By Wil­liam West­hoven

A Mor­ris County judge has denied a motion by a former Del­bar­ton School stu­dent to pur­sue sanc­tions against his alma mater after a jury awar­ded him $5 mil­lion last year in a land­mark clergy sexual abuse trial.

Attor­neys for the vic­tim, a 1977 gradu­ate iden­ti­fied in court records as T.M., filed a motion earlier this month seek­ing addi­tional sanc­tions against the elite, all-boys school and the Cath­olic order of monks that oper­ates it. They alleged that the Order of St. Bene­dict of New Jer­sey, which oper­ates the school and St. Mary’s Abbey on the Mor­ris Town­ship cam­pus, with­held key evid­ence dur­ing the case.

Judge Louis Sceusi, who presided over the ori­ginal trial, issued his denial on May 27.

“This mat­ter was tried to ver­dict after nearly a dec­ade of lit­ig­a­tion in Octo­ber of 2025,” Sceusi wrote in his decision. “While Plaintiff has every right to bring a post-judg­ment motion or appeal, what Plaintiff asks this court to do is func­tion­ally a request for a new trial or recon­sid­er­a­tion. The jury heard extens­ive evid­ence on the rel­ev­ant issues, and has already ruled on liab­il­ity and dam­ages.”

T.M.’s attor­ney, Rayna Kessler, said Sceusi’s rul­ing was “pro­ced­ural.”

“It did not clear Del­bar­ton, and it did not decide whether Del­bar­ton com­plied with its court-ordered dis­cov­ery oblig­a­tions,” she said. “That is the issue we intend to keep press­ing.”

Attor­neys for the Rev. Richard Lott and the the Order of St. Bene­dict of New Jer­sey did not com­ment on this latest rul­ing.

T.M., now 65, test­i­fied that he was sexu­ally assaul­ted at age 15 while a sopho­more at the school by Lott, a monk, former teacher and main­ten­ance dir­ector at Del­bar­ton. The trauma from that night “fol­lows me around like a dark cloud,” he said.

A six-mem­ber jury agreed, deliv­er­ing a unan­im­ous ver­dict on Oct. 15 against Lott and the order.

T.M.’s attor­neys then urged jur­ors dur­ing the pun­it­ive phase of the trial to pun­ish the school and the order for cre­at­ing “a cul­ture of abuse and a cul­ture of silence.” But after five hours of delib­er­a­tions over two days, the same jury decided unan­im­ously against impos­ing pun­it­ive dam­ages in addi­tion to the $5 mil­lion com­pens­at­ory award.

T.M.’s case was also believed to be the first clergy abuse suit involving a Cath­olic Church entity to reach a courtroom in New Jer­sey, where hun­dreds of other cases have been filed alleging that the church covered up viol­a­tions for dec­ades.

Back in court

In a reply brief to the motion for sanc­tions filed on May 14, attor­neys for Lott and the order denied the accus­a­tions in the sanc­tion request. They pre­vi­ously denied the alleg­a­tions made in the ori­ginal trial, which was the first to reach trial stage among 39 pending abuse cases against Del­bar­ton.

The motion for sanc­tions alleged that crit­ical evid­ence, includ­ing addi­tional respons­ive invest­ig­at­ive reports, were with­held dur­ing last year’s civil trial, which began in Septem­ber.

T.M. “fought for years to uncover the truth, endured a seven-week trial, and then learned after­ward that Del­bar­ton had evid­ence that we con­tend was court-ordered,” Kessler said. “No power­ful insti­tu­tion should be allowed to bene­fit from keep­ing evid­ence hid­den until after a ver­dict.”

Sceusi wrote, “While Plaintiff raises ser­i­ous alleg­a­tions regard­ing the with­hold­ing of dis­cov­ery, the court can­not reach the sub­stance of those claims because the motion is, in effect, an improper attempt to rel­it­ig­ate issues already adju­dic­ated and to cir­cum­vent the estab­lished pro­ced­ures for postjudg­ment relief.”