SOUTH ORANGE VILLAGE (NJ)
Politico [Arlington VA]
August 13, 2026
By Dustin Racioppi
An independent review is necessary to restore public confidence, said Sen. Joe Vitale.
A senior New Jersey lawmaker has asked the state attorney general to investigate Seton Hall University over its handling of sexual harassment and abuse allegations, according to a letter obtained by POLITICO.
The request from Sen. Joe Vitale, the Democratic chair of the upper chamber’s health committee, comes about six weeks after an investigation ordered by the Archdiocese of Newark effectively cleared the university’s new president, Monsignor Joseph Reilly, of wrongdoing as a seminary leader more than a decade ago.
But Vitale said that that investigation “appears, to many, to be a whitewash” because it conflicts with the findings of a separate, 2019 probe focused on the disgraced ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the longtime archbishop of Newark and Washington, D.C. That investigation was never made public but, as POLITICO reported in 2024, implicated Reilly (he was not accused of abuse).
That means Seton Hall has had two privately commissioned reports from law firms that “reach fundamentally different conclusions” about Reilly, Vitale said. The best remedy, he said, is for the state to investigate.
“Only an independent review conducted by a public entity can provide the confidence necessary to restore public trust,” Vitale wrote to Attorney General Jennifer Davenport, who earned her law degree from Seton Hall.
The Attorney General’s Office said it is reviewing Vitale’s letter “and the concerns it raises about the safety and well-being of New Jersey’s students.”
“Attorney General Davenport is committed to making every effort to ensure students can get an education and realize their potential in safe environments,” spokesperson Michael Symons said. “Among her top priorities is protecting young people from predatory behavior and exploitation.”
Seton Hall and the Newark archdiocese did not respond to messages seeking comment.
A state investigation would add another legal complication to Seton Hall. The storied Catholic university, along with the archdiocese, has spent several years in court over claims of clergy abuse going back decades. The university is also locked in a court battle with Reilly’s predecessor, Joseph Nyre, who left his position early and filed a whistleblower lawsuit, which was recently dismissed.
Ropes & Gray had been hired by Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the archbishop of Newark, last February to essentially investigate the 2019 investigation. The latest report confirmed that, as a seminary leader, Reilly did not properly report a 2012 sexual abuse allegation to the school’s Title IX office. But the report said it was an error that was “unintentional given that he had not been trained on the applicable policy.”
One of Vitale’s requests for a state investigation is to determine whether the university and its leadership have complied with the federal Title IX requirements and whether “any matters uncovered” should be referred to the proper authorities.
The Ropes & Gray report leaves other questions unanswered — and acknowledges it doesn’t have an answer for one of them. Investigators said that a pair of letters from a university task force in charge of disciplinary actions “were inaccurate” to recommend Reilly be removed from his position as rector of the school’s Immaculate Conception Seminary and from governing boards.
The report said it drew on “hundreds” of documents and several dozen interviews. However, the law firm that helped craft the disciplinary recommendations for Reilly declined to participate and, the report said, “no witness who participated in this Review, however, was able to account for these discrepancies.” Nyre, who was president when the 2019 investigation was done, was also not interviewed.
Vitale, who led the effort to expand the state’s statute of limitations for civil sexual abuse claims, said the state has a “strong interest” to investigate since Seton Hall is a nonprofit and receives public funds.
New Jersey residents and survivors of sexual abuse, he said in a statement, “deserve to have confidence that claims of institutional misconduct — especially those alleged against institutions entrusted with the education and care of our young people — are evaluated independently and transparently.”