Jury spares Delbarton School from having to pay punitive damages in sex abuse case

The New Jersey jury that made history last week by awarding $5 million in damages to a Delbarton School graduate who claimed a monk sexually assaulted him decided Thursday not to impose further penalties on the elite Catholic prep school.

The New Jersey jury that made history last week by awarding $5 million in damages to a Delbarton School graduate who claimed a monk sexually assaulted him decided Thursday not to impose further penalties on the elite Catholic prep school.

The four women and two men on the panel declined to award any punitive damages to the accuser, who has been identified only as T.M. during the more than five-week trial in Morris County Superior Court.

Nevertheless, in the aftermath of Thursday's decision, T.M. released a statement calling the case a "seismic shift towards institutional accountability."

"My hope is that by pursuing this nearly nine-year climb to justice, I can help others understand the profound and lasting impact of clergy sexual abuse — not just on the victims, but on their families, their communities, and their futures," T.M. said. "No one should have to endure what I have experienced."

His lawyers, Rayna Kessler and Michael Geibelson, also released a statement that did not directly address the jury's decision not to award punitive damages.