NEWARK (NJ)
NJ Advance Media - nj.com [Iselin NJ]
October 8, 2025
By Ted Sherman
It took him his whole life to tell his story.
Now in his 60s, his long fight ended on Wednesday in a Morris County courtroom.
A former student of the Delbarton School, who claimed he was sexually assaulted more than 40 years ago by one of the Benedictine monks who operate the Catholic boys prep school, was awarded $5 million in compensatory damages on Wednesday, following a landmark trial that sought to hold the high-profile institution to account.
Attorneys for the victim, identified by his initials only, told jurors that Delbarton had failed its mission by tolerating and ignoring a culture of sexual abuse that was clearly evident as far back as 1954. Lawyers for the school, the Benedictine order and Rev. Richard Lott, the former monk accused in the assault, maintained it never happened.
After 14 days of testimony and two days of deliberation, the jury was unanimous in determining the assault had indeed occurred. The Order of St. Benedict of New Jersey, which operates the school, was found to be 65% liable for the abuse, with Lott 35% liable.
A hearing will be held next week to determine if additional punitive damages will be awarded.
The case marked the first clergy sexual abuse lawsuit to go to trial in New Jersey against the Catholic Church since the 2019 passage of the state’s Child Victims Act, which greatly extended the amount of time victims of sexual abuse had to sue.
The award, meanwhile, could have major repercussions for a school that charges $48,725 a year in tuition and boasts of a high-powered base of alumni and donors who include business leaders, lawyers, politicians and playwrights, as well as famous athletes such as Anthony Volpe of the New York Yankees.
Abbot Jonathan Licari of St. Mary’s Abbey and Rev. Michael Tidd, the headmaster of Delbarton School, said in a joint statement that they were disappointed with the verdict, but thanked the judge and the jury.
“The communities of St. Mary’s Abbey and Delbarton School have genuine compassion for any victim of abuse. However, we do not believe that the damages awarded in this case are either fair or reasonable, and our legal representatives are considering all legal options,” they said. “The incident in question in this trial occurred fifty years ago, when modern safeguards did not exist at secular or religious schools or other youth-serving institutions. That fact cannot be an excuse, but it is a truth that must be reflected in the verdict.”
Attorneys for the plaintiff in the case had no comment, noting an ongoing gag order by the judge.
But Mark Crawford, a clergy abuse survivor and state director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, called the decision “long overdue,” and said justice had prevailed.
“They clearly found the school and the Order of St. Benedict of New Jersey created an environment that put children in harm’s way,” he remarked.
Bill Crane, the son of a former Delbarton teacher and administrator who with his brother were among the first to speak out about abuse at the boys’ school, said the verdict marked “a new beginning in church history, where we will witness a transfer of shame and guilt from a brave victim, finally putting the shame and guilt in its rightful place, on leaders past and present at Delbarton who knowingly misled an entire community and abused their power with lies in order to protect a culture of lies and crimes perpetrated on children.”
Delbarton had already settled several other sexual abuse complaints outright in recent years, while acknowledging there had been past transgressions.
It offered an apology in 2018 “to anyone who has suffered sexual abuse or harassment because of the actions of a St. Mary’s Abbey monk or Delbarton School employee.”
However, it is still facing dozens of other lawsuits alleging past sexual assaults by its clergy.
Even before the Delbarton case went to the jury, school officials appeared to have concerns over how it might play out.
A day before the start of the trial, they filed a federal lawsuit against its insurance carrier over its refusal to settle the matter. In that federal court filing, the school noted that pretrial discovery leading up to the civil trial — including depositions by many of those who were scheduled to testify —disclosed potential factual support for the former student’s allegations.
That material suggested the possibility of “significant” legal exposure to the Order of St. Benedict of New Jersey, and the possibility of a large compensatory award and punitive damages.
The civil trial before Superior Court Judge Louis S. Sceusi in Morris County, which began in early September, heard directly from the former student, now 65, as well as from Lott, the 89-year-old former monk and Delbarton chemistry teacher he had accused of assaulting him after a night of drinking.
“He was different from the other monks. Nice. Friendly. Engaging,” the former student said, noting that Lott also headed Delbarton’s maintenance staff and was typically dressed not in a traditional habit and hood, but in flannel shirts, jeans and work boots.
Lott, an ordained priest and a monk in the religious order, did not live in the monastery, but had moved into the Delbarton maintenance barn. It was there where work crews would often congregate at the end of the day to socialize over beers, the former student testified. Despite his age, he said he would join them.
“It was always Budweiser for Father Richard,” the former student testified. “Drinking beer was a regular thing.”
In December of 1975, with Delbarton closed for Christmas break, the student said he had remained on the campus to help with recovery work following a fire in the monastery several weeks earlier. He stayed in the barn with Lott.
That New Year’s Eve, he said Lott invited him to a party at a private home in Mendham and he accompanied him there. Returning to Delbarton after midnight, he admitted on the witness stand that he was “wobbly,” and sat down on a sofa. It was there, he told the jury, that Lott sexually assaulted him, describing in detail an unwelcome episode of oral sex.
When he realized what had happened, he said he fled the barn into the night.
While he never told his parents, he said he finally wrote a letter about what happened to the school’s abbot, Brian Clarke. He testified that Clarke later told him that Lott had “acknowledged the incident,” but the administration never did anything about it. The letter, hand-written on a 5×7 piece of paper, was left in his desk drawer until Clarke discarded it.
Clarke, who died in October 2019, in fact acknowledged in a deposition taken before his death that he ultimately destroyed the letter, in part, he said, to protect the confidentiality of the student who did not want to be identified. And also to protect the school.
“It’s bad for the reputation of the school when there is sexual abuse associated with it,” he said.
His deposition was read aloud to the jury.
Lott, during the trial, steadfastly denied the accusations against him. He told the jury there had been no New Year’s Eve party and that he had been an hour and a half away at St. Mary’s Parish in Lakewood on that evening in preparation for morning Mass the following day.
Although he left the Benedictine order not long after the allegations were made, Lott — while still a priest — no longer ministers and asked during the trial that he be addressed as “mister” and not “father.”
David Drake, whose family owned the house in Mendham where the New Year’ Eve party was allegedly held, testified for the defense that he had worked for three months as a teenager working at Delbarton in the maintenance department under Lott.
“Did you ever hear of any allegations of abuse as to any of the monks, priests or clerics at the Delbarton School?” he was asked.
“No, I did not,” he replied.
“Do you recall your parents ever having a New Year’s Eve party at any time?” one of the defense attorneys asked.
“I don’t. My mother was very antisocial. I don’t remember ever having a New Year’s Eve party on any New Year’s,” Drake testified.
Lott’s attorney, Mark Brancato, told the jury that no trial witnesses placed the student on campus when he said the assault occurred.
Yet there had also been incidents of sexual abuse at the hands of Lott involving others, jurors learned. Among them included an initiate monk who described the abuse to the jury, which he said continued even after he reported his accusations against Lott.
When asked about his understanding of the culture at the monastery regarding sexual misconduct, the young initiate said, “It was not to be discussed. Keep it a secret.”
In its statement, Delbarton officials said to protect the well-being of the students in their care, “we create and maintain a safe environment through policies and procedures which are regularly reviewed and affirmed by Praesidium, a leading independent accrediting firm in the field of abuse prevention.”
They said Delbarton is one of only seven secondary schools in the United States to earn Praesidium accreditation and was recently reaccredited in September 2025.