NEWARK (NJ)
NJ Spotlight News - WNET [New York NY]
March 19, 2025
By Joanna Gagis, Senior Correspondent; Interview: Dustin Racioppi, New Jersey editor for Politico
After a lengthy hearing on Tuesday, Superior Court Judge Avion M. Benjamin ordered Seton Hall University to provide her with an internal report on sexual abuse claims involving clergy at the school.
“Seton Hall, in her view, violated a previous court order from a couple of years ago, where she says that they should have coughed up certain documents related to this 2019 report that’s related to former Cardinal McCarrick, into clergy abuse at Seton Hall. And they now have to give her an unredacted version of that report and related documents for her to review. And then she will decide whether portions of it are subject to attorney-client privilege, think that it should be redacted, and then she will then share that redacted version with lawyers for the plaintiffs in this broader case,” said Dustin Racioppi, New Jersey editor for Politico, in an interview with NJ Spotlight News.
Seton Hall attorneys argued in court that attorney-client privilege meant the report should be exempt from having to be shared. Some 450 plaintiffs in this case say the report will reveal a widespread coverup of sexual abuse in the Newark Archdiocese.
“They’re dealing with about 450 cases of alleged abuse … including [in] Seton Hall and other churches, parishes within the Newark Archdiocese, going back 70, 80 years. It’s a lot. They’re wrestling with thousands, if not millions, of documents. So the Seton Hall 2019 report is just going to fold into all that and I think they believe that this is going to make their broader case that there is long-standing systemic issues within the church,” says Racioppi.
Despite allegations that Monsignor Joseph Reilly, now the president of Seton Hall University, was aware of sexual abuse allegations against McCarrick and didn’t report them, the university has stood staunchly behind Reilly, despite calls from elected leaders for him to step down or be removed.
“Representative Mikie Sherrill has not been satisfied with the responses that she’s gotten. Two state senators, Sen. Joe Vitale and Sen. Andrew Zwicker, they are not satisfied,” Racioppi said.