Select Board Questioned Over COJ Suit Allegations

ORLEANS – As allegations of child abuse and trafficking continue to loom over the Community of Jesus, Shawn DeLude went before the select board last week with questions.

 “First, is the town aware of the serious allegations and legal complaints that have been raised regarding the Community of Jesus?” DeLude said. “Second, what steps, if any, are being taken by the town or the appropriate authorities to ensure the safety and well-being of individuals, particularly children, who may be living within this community?”

 Oliver Ortolani filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court last July alleging that he and a number of other boys in the Community were “subject to forced labor and trafficking” through their role in helping build the Community’s performing arts center in Brewster. The suit also alleges violations of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act and Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Actions Act (RICO), and alleges “unjust enrichment” by the defendants, which in addition to the Community also include two other nonprofits, Arts Empowering Life, Inc., and Performing Arts Building Foundation, Inc.

 Ortolani, who is no longer a member of the Community, alleges that children involved with building the center were forced to work as many as 16 hours a day with “minimal” time provided for breakfast and lunch. Those who resisted or complained about the work or the schedule were “assaulted” or “shunned” by members of the community, the suit alleges. The suit further alleges that children were kept out of school under the pretense that the work on the center constituted “educational coursework,” and that Community members hid children from government inspectors when they visited the project worksite.

 The Community, through its attorney Jeffrey Robbins, has steadfastly denied the allegations brought forth in the suit, calling them baseless and “frivolous.” In November, the Community, Arts Empowering Life and Performing Arts Building Foundation filed their own suit in U.S. District Court against Oliver’s parents, David and Ellen Ortolani, alleging that the couple were instrumental in leading the work program at the center of their son’s suit. 

 “The charitable organizations assert in the strongest of terms that Oliver’s claims are worse than merely false,” the countersuit reads. “The facts of which he is well aware (and of which those who filed this claim at a minimum should have been well aware with reasonable diligence) make it very plain that his allegations are false.”

 In an email Tuesday, Robbins called DeLude’s questioning of the select board “not merely ludicrous, and not merely incredibly offensive, but downright dumb.”

 “This individual is essentially telling the town of Orleans to violate the First Amendment rights of members of the Community of Jesus in a way so patently abusive that one can hardly imagine that an adult would do so,” he said.

 For DeLude, who fled the Community when he was 15, the allegations set forth in Oliver Ortolani’s suit are nothing new. For many years, he said, the Community “has been the subject of consistent public reporting and survivor testimony describing allegations of abuse, coercive control and exploitation.” 

 “After 50 years, many survivors continue to ask important questions,” DeLude said. “Are appropriate authorities fully investigating these claims? Are children being adequately protected? Is there transparency and accountability where it’s needed? These are questions not rooted in anger, but in care for those who are harmed and those who are still inside in need.”

 DeLude, who founded and ran Nauset Disposal for many years and later started his own communications business, now serves as president of Rock Harbor Truth, a nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness about alleged activity within the Community and providing resources in support of “survivors of spiritual abuse, coercive control and institutional exploitation.” He said as awareness around the allegations facing the Community continues to grow in the broader community, the time had come to address the select board directly.

 “I just feel like I was in a position with my network and who I am and what I’ve done in the town…and it was time to ask them,” he said when reached by phone after the meeting.

 DeLude’s comments were raised during the public comment period of the select board’s March 4 meeting. The board does not respond to matters raised during the public comment period, as any topics of discussion among the board first need to be listed as part of that meeting’s agenda.

 Outside of his public comments last week, DeLude said he has had conversations on his own with members of the select board about the allegations against the Community.

 “I’ve had casual conversations, and some of the select [board] are aware and I think have discussed it with the town manager, but no one’s really talking much about it,” he said.

 Following last week’s meeting, Select Board Chair Kevin Galligan said DeLude’s comments weighed on him through the rest of the board’s session.

 “I’m just very troubled by it,” he said. “It really troubled me to hear. I’d rather not say more because the town is not involved in the litigation.”

Michael Herman of the select board called the allegations brought forth against the defendants in Oliver Ortolani’s suit “sad and disturbing.”

 “I have immense respect for survivors’ courage to come forward in any instance of abuse and feel that communities should always provide safe and supportive space/resources for survivors to come forward, and take whatever steps are necessary to protect and seek justice for everyone,” he said.

 But Town Manager Kim Newman said after the meeting that in terms of taking any type of direct action, the allegations against the Community don’t fall within the select board’s purview.

 “Public speak is available to anyone, but oftentimes issues that get raised are not necessarily actionable by the [select board] because the town has no jurisdiction in the matter,” she said.

 “I mean come on,” DeLude said. “We have kids that are being abused and they don’t have a statement on that? They don’t have any jurisdiction? They can’t help these kids?”

 So what would DeLude and other advocates for Community survivors like to see done?

 “I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know. These are the policy makers and decision makers of the town that have legal counsel. We’re just an organization trying to help survivors. If they can’t do anything, just come out and say ‘Nope, can’t do anything.’”

 Robbins said the town “has been admirable in rebuffing” what he called “the kind of hatred” espoused by DeLude and others about the Community.

 “Unfortunately, there are some who believe that the fomenting of hatred is socially acceptable and even desirable,” Robbins said in his email. “I am quite sure that the town of Orleans will disregard this person's demands that it violate the Constitutional rights of individuals, subjecting itself to incredibly foolish liability and debasing the Orleans community at large.”

Looking ahead, DeLude said he is also considering making a similar appeal to the select board in Brewster, where the Community’s performing arts center is located.