Delbarton Sues Attorney Representing Sexual Abuse Victim

The Delbarton School has filed a lawsuit against the attorney representing several clients who have come out against sexual abuses by priests at the school, according to an article in The Star-Ledger.

Gregory Gianforcaro, a Phillipsburg-based lawyer, is accused by the Order of St. Benedict of New Jersey—which oversees the Morris Township-based Catholic school—of violating a confidentiality agreement put in place as part of a 1988 settlement following Monk Timothy Brennan's guilty plea of sexual assault against a then-teenage boy at the school, according to the article.

The suit, made public on Thursday, accuses the attorney of using the case as a way toward personal gain, according to the article.

In June, during a press conference in front of the Morris County Courthouse, Gianforcaro said his client wanted to break the silence that has been legally required of him for 24 years. The confidentiality agreement was, according to the school and abbey's attorneys at the time, in the best interests of the school, Brennan and the student whom Brennan had admitted in court to abusing.

"John Doe," as his client has been publicly named, actually first expressed desire to speak about the abuse he suffered at the hands of Brennan in 2002. That prompted a swift response from Delbarton's and St. Mary's Abbey legal representation at the time.

"'Our potential damages are very real here,'" Gianforcaro quoted the statement from their legal team at the time during the press conference. "'We will vigorously seek to enforce the confidentiality provision.'"

As the case is more than two decades old, and the victim already received compensation at the time, Gianforcaro noted in June that "John Doe" was not looking for any additional monetary compensation, simply the ability to speak publicly about his abuse.