June 16, 2025
Jim Walsh/USA TODAY NETWORK
The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Monday that the state attorney general's office can proceed with a grand jury investigation into decades of clergy sexual abuse. The decision ends a seven-year effort by the Diocese of Camden to prevent the state from presenting its findings to a grand jury.
New Jersey can move forward with a grand jury investigation into claims of sexual abuse by clergy with the Catholic Diocese of Camden, the state's Supreme Court ruled Monday, ending years of legal battles.
The state attorney general's office began its probe into the abuse allegations in 2018 after Pennsylvania released a grand jury report detailing decades of sexual abuse of more than 1,000 children in that state. In the seven years since, the Camden diocese has fought the release of the New Jersey Attorney General's Office's findings, mostly in sealed court proceedings, winning in some instance in lower courts.
The case became public when the New Jersey Supreme Court agreed to hear the state's appeal of a lower court's ruling in favor of the diocese. The Diocese of Camden, which is comprised of 62 parishes in Atlantic, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem counties, had argued state law does not allow grand juries to present findings in cases dealing with private individuals.
Then in May, the Diocese of Camden abandoned its position and stopped fighting the attorney general's plans to impanel a grand jury. Bishop Joseph A. Williams, who became the leader of the Camden diocese in March, wrote a letter to parishioners explaining that the decision was motivated by the need to regain the trust of sexual abuse victims and help them rekindle their faith in the church.
In its unanimous decision released Monday, the seven-member Supreme Court said the diocese's argument, which had already been made to the court before the church's position changed, asked the court to make a presumption about what a grand jury investigation would find.
"Courts cannot presume the outcome of an investigation in advance or the contents of a presentment that has not yet been written," the Supreme Court's Chief Justice Stuart Rabner wrote in the decision.
New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said the state aims to address abusive conditions that went unchecked for decades.
"We remain as committed today as throughout these past seven years to doing all we can to support survivors and advance the healing they deserve," Platkin said.
Mark Crawford, the New Jersey director of the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, praised Monday's decision.
"Decades of crimes against children will finally be exposed," Crawford told the Associated Press.
The 2018 grand jury report in Pennsylvania prompted New Jersey to reform its statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse claims, giving victims the right to sue until they turn 55 or within seven years of determining they had been harmed by their experience of abuse. Before 2019, victims had to be younger than 20 years old or file suit within two years of recognizing the impact of abuse.
Faced with dozens of lawsuits, the Diocese of Camden reached an $87.5 million settlement with about 300 accusers of clergy sexual abuse in 2022. The deal marked one of the largest cash settlements of its kind in the United States, covering claims from victims in six counties in South Jersey.
