The New Jersey Supreme Court unsealed court records in a dispute with the Camden diocese over whether a state grand jury can issue a presentment on sex abuse claims. (Getty Images)
After a Pennsylvania grand jury in 2018 found hundreds of Catholic priests had sexually abused at least 1,000 children over seven decades, New Jersey’s then-Attorney General Gurbir Grewal launched an investigation of allegations of sexual abuse by members of the clergy within Catholic dioceses here.
Prosecutors wanted a grand jury empaneled to consider evidence in the case, but Camden’s diocesan leaders successfully squashed it, persuading trial and appellate judges that a state grand jury had no authority to issue a presentment against a private religious entity — and that all court records in the matter should be sealed.
Wednesday, the state snagged a win in the long-fought battle, when the New Jersey Supreme Court ordered the records to be unsealed and agreed to hear arguments in the case next month.
The decision clears the path for prosecutors to potentially bring the case to a grand jury — if justices agree with the state’s argument that grand juries are constitutionally permitted to issue presentments on matters “of public affairs or conditions,” and clergy abuse qualifies as such. A presentment is a written accusation of a crime prepared by a grand jury. Arguments are expected to be held during the court’s April 28-29 session.
First Assistant Attorney General Lyndsay Ruotolo said the clergy abuse task force Grewal created “has never wavered” in its mission, and prosecutors remain committed to bringing charges when warranted and proceeding with a grand jury presentment.
“For years, we have been seeking to convene a grand jury to present evidence collected by prosecutors across the state regarding decades of sexual abuse, the conditions that made that abuse possible, and the systematic failures to prevent it — and to allow the grand jury, as the conscience of our community, to make recommendations to ensure widespread abuse by clergy can never happen again,” Ruotolo said in a statement.
She said she’s grateful the state Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.
“Now that this case has been made public for the first time in this years-long dispute, victims and survivors will have an opportunity to make their voices heard — and to speak to the real harms that we have never lost sight of,” she said.
A spokesman for the Camden diocese and attorney Lloyd D. Levenson, who represents the diocese, did not respond to requests for comment. James King, executive director of the New Jersey Catholic Conference, declined to comment.
In the unsealed briefs, prosecutors argued that trial and appellate judges erred both in entertaining a challenge to a hypothetical grand jury presentment that does not yet exist and in barring a presentment that focuses on the conduct of private individuals.
“Statewide sexual abuse by clergy, and the State’s failure to prevent it, have had a tremendous impact on the public,” prosecutors wrote. “The grand jury’s presentment power is a tool to voice the public conscience, to learn from past harms, and to propose reforms.”
The lower courts’ rulings “preclude the use of that tool to address one of the most wrenching harms in recent memory,” they added.
But the Camden diocese argued that a presentment is unnecessary because abuse victims can get relief through civil lawsuits. Levenson also accused the state of having an “ulterior motive … to mitigate the public relations debacle it created” by promising in press releases in 2019 that a presentment would be forthcoming.
“A grand jury is not authorized to return a presentment against the Roman Catholic Church relating to decades-old allegations of clergy abuse. A grand jury may only return a presentment that refers to public affairs or conditions which are imminent and pertinent,” Levenson wrote. “The internal operations of the Catholic Church from long ago are not public affairs or conditions, are not imminent and pertinent, and thus are not an appropriate subject matter of a presentment.”
Despite being blocked from presenting the case to a grand jury, the state task force has continued its investigation, fielding more than 550 calls on a 24-hour hotline alleging sexual, physical, and mental abuse by clergy, according to the briefs. At least four clergy have been arrested, according to the briefs.
Mark Crawford, the New Jersey director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said he’s thrilled the Supreme Court unsealed the court records and plans to attend the arguments.
“The victims here have a right to know what’s been going on after six dark years of silence,” Crawford said. “Look, the Camden bishop’s actions did not just impact the victims of the Camden diocese, but every victim in this state. The other Catholic dioceses all stood by in silence and said nothing — nothing! — when they knew that these items were being litigated in court to prevent the presentment by a grand jury.”
He called the Camden diocese’s actions to stifle the state investigation “the same old playbook.”
“It’s ‘let’s suppress what we know, prevent it from getting to the public’ while publicly saying ‘we’re going to cooperate, we’re going to be open and transparent,’” Crawford said. “What does that say about their care or compassion for the victims, who simply want to be validated, who want a voice, who want their stories told, who want to be heard?”
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