Seton Hall University's efforts to conceal an investigative report that detailed allegations of a possible sexual abuse cover up were overturned yesterday A judge determined that the university must turn over a report that it commissioned in 2019 to investigate sexual abuse allegations against members of the Newark Archdiocese One member is the now defrocked Cardinal Theodore McCarrick accused of decades of abuse.

Monsignor Joseph Reilly has been accused of knowing about and not reporting McCarrick's abuse only to be named president of Satan Hall University last year Dustin Racioppi is the New Jersey editor for Politico and he was in the courtroom yesterday as the ruling came down He's here now to talk about it Dustin great to have you with us uh tonight I know yesterday was a long day in court help us understand what happened uh what what the judge's ruling is going to determine now in terms of uh making this report more open Yeah it was a lengthy hearing and there were a number of arguments that lawyers on both sides made but really what it came down to and what the judge decided was that Satan 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 on at Seton so she said that Seton Hall violated that order 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 things that should be redacted and then she will then share that redacted version with uh lawyers for the plaintiffs in this broader case Now help us understand help us understand Dustin the case that Seton Hall was making because they did commission this report They've said that this was attorney client privilege Explain how they argued that in court which seems was unsuccessful Yeah they made a lot of different arguments Some of it was was to go against what the plaintiffs had argued Um but yeah they they had said this was subject to attorney client privilege and therefore they shouldn't have to turn it over But they also said that they weren't subject to this discovery order from a couple of years ago Um but that obviously did not work with the judge and she ruled the way that she did and and so she's going to see this report Now the plaintiffs are making the case and as you told me before we started there are about 450 plaintiffs as a part of this case Um but they are making the case that this is not a situation of just a few bad apples I believe someone was quoted as saying this is a rotten orchard um what are they pushing for what do they believe this report indicates in terms of the broader I suppose alleged cover up yeah it's just like you said I I I think the belief on the plaintiff's side is that this is going to go towards their contribute towards their broader argument that this was a broad and systemic problem within the Archdiocese They're dealing with about 450 cases of alleged abuse within the Archdiocese including Seton Hall and and other churches parishes within the uh Newark Archdiocese 450 cases going back you know 70 80 years Uh it's a lot Uh they're wrestling with thousands if not millions of documents So the seat and hole the 2019 report is just going to fold into all that And I think they believe that this is going to uh make their broader case that there was long-standing systemic issues within the church Now one of those alleged claims is that Monsignor Joseph Reilly who is now the president of Seton Hall University was aware of sexual abuse allegations against Theodore McCarrick who uh is now defrocked Um what are you hearing and what are we seeing around the state in terms of calls now for Reilly to step down as the head of Seton Hall University and do you believe that uh the overturning of this report could have an impact in that i'm not sure that that would have an impact on that Seton Hall has stood very firm in standing by uh father or Monsignor Reilly 's side And I just want to clarify it's alleged that he knew about he may have heard or known about things with McCarrick but it was separate allegations that he allegedly knew about and didn't properly report and and he's not accused of abuse himself either So I just want to make that clear Absolutely Um lawmakers are still some of them are still pushing for this Uh Representative Mikie Sherrill has not been satisfied with the responses that she's gotten Two state senators Joe Vitale and Andrew Zwicker they are not satisfied Uh they're they're probably the the strongest voices in Trenton right now They just put out a statement uh to me the other day saying that this really isn't enough that they that the university should be transparent and should let people know But uh Seton Hall as I said that they've stood firmly by uh Monsignor Reilly and it looks like they're going to stay that way for now So the report has uh been ordered to be turned over It has not yet As you said we uh in the public are not going to have any access to it as of yet but we'll keep on this story I know you will too Dustin Racioppi uh New Jersey editor with Politico Thanks so much for your time tonight Good to have you with us Thank you for having me [Music]