NEWARK (NJ)
NorthJersey.com [Woodland Park NJ]
October 30, 2025
By Deena Yellin
The Delbarton School is seeking a new trial following a $5 million verdict in favor of a man who sued the all-boys Catholic school, charging sexual assault by one of its monks nearly five decades ago.
In an Oct. 28 state court filing, Delbarton and the Order of St. Benedict of New Jersey, which operates the Morris County school, complained of a “litany of errors” from “start to finish” at the trial, which ended in October with a unanimous jury verdict for the former student.
The landmark trial was closely watched by clergy abuse victims and advocates. It was the first civil sex abuse lawsuit against the Catholic Church to go to a jury in New Jersey since the state extended the statute of limitations for such allegations in 2019. It was also the first of dozens of clergy abuse cases against the school to go to trial.
But James Barletti, a lawyer for Delbarton and the Order of St. Benedict, argued in the filing that the terminology used by the plaintiff’s attorney at the trial, including references to “rape” and “blitz rape,” were “intentional and inflammatory” and “irreparably tainted the jury’s perception of the case.”
That was compounded by the exclusion of the order’s medical expert from testifying, improper statements by the ex-student’s attorney and misconduct by a juror that led to his removal, according to the filing.
Barletti also deemed the $5 million award “excessive.” The school in Morris Township, which charges about $50,000 a year in tuition, was found 65% liable for the award, but the jury decided against imposing what could have been far greater punitive damages.
The allegations
During the five-week trial, the now-65-year-old plaintiff alleged that the Rev. Richard Lott abused him when he was a 15-year-old student at Delbarton. Identified only as “T.M.” to protect his privacy, the former student testified that Lott had plied him with alcohol at an off-campus party on New Year’s Eve of 1975 before driving back to Lott’s secluded quarters at the school.
The teen was intoxicated when Lott began to perform oral sex on him, T.M. said. He awoke and fled from the scene, but the incident left him with physical, emotional and psychological injuries for the rest of his life, he said. It was intensified, according to T.M., by his sense of betrayal after he reported the violation and monks at the school failed to act.
Lott, 89, denied the accusations in his testimony. He said he was not on the school campus on the date of the alleged assault but was instead serving as a parish priest in Lakewood, nearly two hours away on the Jersey Shore. He said he had never had sex with anyone.
The six-person jury at the Morris County Courthouse nonetheless ruled unanimously on Oct. 8 that the abuse had occurred and that both Lott and Delbarton were liable for T.M.’s suffering.
The verdict could impact future cases against the school, pressuring it to settle with alleged victims, experts said. With the $5 million award, “the value of those settlements likely went up significantly,” said Joseph Del Russo, a Montclair State University law professor and former chief assistant in the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office.
Delbarton’s case for retrial
Delbarton and the Order cited a host of alleged problems in their request for a do-over.
The defendants applied for a mistrial six times, and all were denied by the court, their filing noted. One came after a juror was disqualified at the start of deliberations for conducting his own legal research and sharing his opinions with other jurors.
He was subsequently replaced. But his misconduct “irreversibly tainted the entire jury and his replacement with an alternate following the trial court’s denial of OSBNJ’s request for a mistrial was legally erroneous and highly prejudicial,” said the filing.
A new trial is “required to preserve the integrity of the judicial process,” it added. T.M.’s attorneys relied on evidence the court had barred, as well as “inflammatory” comments in their summation which “strayed well beyond the admissible record” The barred evidence referred to closing remarks by T.M.’s attorney, who included references to another clergy abuse case that the court had deemed inadmissible, said the filing.
In addition, there were “irrelevant references” to allegations to another alleged victim’s suicide, which had nothing to do with T.M.’s case, Barletti argued.More: Can Delbarton recover from $5M sex assault verdict? ‘Stakes are high’ as jury reconvenes
Reached on Thursday, a Delbarton spokeswoman declined to comment on the filing.
Accusers’ attorneys respond
Rayna Kessler, an attorney for T.M., dismissed the motion as “nothing more than Delbarton and OSBNJ’s continued refusal to accept accountability. This case was decided by a jury after six weeks of listening to all the evidence and all of the arguments — including the very ones they are now trying to rehash. The jury saw the truth and found unanimously that the abuse occurred and that the institution was liable.”
The $5 million award was not excessive, she said. “It is a measure of the devastating, lifelong injuries a survivor suffers when a powerful institution fails to protect a child. We look forward to finalizing this significant victory for T.M. and for survivors across New Jersey.”
Greg Gianforcaro, an attorney representing 31 pending cases against the school by former students, said he was confident Delbarton’s request will be denied.
“It is more apparent than ever that they will not learn until they are confronted with having to litigate the other 38 cases against them,” he said.
A Delbarton spokeswoman declined to comment about the motion. In a statement issued after the jury’s verdict, the school and St. Mary’s Abbey, its connected monastery, said they “have genuine compassion for any victim of abuse” and highlighted reforms adopted to protect students. “The incident in question in this trial occurred 50 years ago, when modern safeguards did not exist at secular or religious schools or other youth-serving institutions,” continued the statement, attributed to Abbot Jonathan Licari, the order’s administrator, and Father Michael Tidd, the school’s headmaster. “That fact cannot be an excuse, but it is a truth that must be reflected in the verdict,” the statement said.