TRENTON (NJ)
The Courier-Post [Cherry Hill NJ]
June 17, 2025
By Jim Walsh
[See also the text of the Supreme Court decision.]
A grand jury can be seated to investigate alleged clergy sex abuse and potential cover-ups in Roman Catholic dioceses across New Jersey, the state Supreme Court has ruled.
Members of that jury also can produce a presentment of its findings, the high court said in a unanimous ruling Monday.
The New Jersey Office of Attorney General proposed creating the special grand jury in 2018, but it’s been blocked by a legal challenge from the Diocese of Camden.
A trial court judge ruled in favor of the diocese, finding state law did not authorize an “anticipated” presentment concerning clergy sex abuse.
The initial ruling said the attorney general’s office “has made no secret as to its intentions” to produce a presentation similar to an 887-page report on Catholic clergy sex abuse previously published by members of a Pennsylvania grand jury.
An appeals court last year upheld the ruling by Mercer County Superior Court Judge Peter Warshaw. But the high court overturned those decisions.
“Courts cannot presume the outcome of an investigation in advance or the contents of a presentment that has not yet been written,” the June 16 ruling said. “It was therefore premature for the trial court to conclude that any potential presentment in this matter had to be suppressed.”
The decision said state authorities could present evidence from an investigation to members of a special grand jury. Any presentment would go to a judge to be reviewed and potentially published.
The ruling also noted a judge’s authority to suppress a grand jury’s presentment “should be used sparingly.”
A representative of the attorney general’s office said the ruling confirmed “what we have maintained throughout this lengthy court battle: that there was no basis to stop the state from pursuing a grand jury presentment on statewide sexual abuse by clergy and the conditions that allowed it to go unchecked for so long.”
“We remain as committed today as throughout these past seven years to doing all we can to support survivors and advance the healing they deserve,” First Assistant Attorney General Lyndsay V. Ruotolo said.
Spokesman Michael Walsh noted that the Camden diocese had withdrawn its objection to a grand jury presentment last month.
The diocese, which serves approximately 475,000 Catholics in South Jersey, also has “publicly affirmed our willingness to cooperate with the New Jersey Attorney General’s investigation,” Walsh said.
“To the victims and all those impacted by abuse, we reaffirm our sorrow, our support, and our unwavering resolve to do what is right, now and always,” he added in an email.
The diocese in March 2024 agreed to pay $87.5 million to survivors of clergy sex abuse under a plan approved by a federal bankruptcy judge.This agreement allows survivors to sue the diocese’s insurers for additional payments of as much as $400 million to $600 million.
Jim Walsh is a senior reporter for the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email: Jwalsh@cpsj.com.