By Denise Coffey
Cape Cod Times
Oct. 19, 2026, 6:02 a.m. ET
[ Link to original article toward bottom of this page]
The Community of Jesus has filed a motion to compel church critic and former member Shawn DeLude to provide more emails and texts related to ongoing lawsuits.
A former member sued the Community of Jesus, alleging forced labor and trafficking of children during the construction of a performing arts center.
The church has countersued the parents of the former member, seeking compensation for any damages or legal fees from their son’s lawsuit.
The Community of Jesus has filed a motion to force Cape Cod entrepreneur and church critic Shawn DeLude to provide more emails and texts in lawsuits connected to David and Ellen Ortolani and their son Oliver. All three family members are former Community of Jesus members.
DeLude, who was a Community member before he left at age 15, has spoken out in support of Oliver Ortolani.
In 2025, at age 18, Ortolani filed a $5 million lawsuit against the Community of Jesus, Arts Empowering Life, and the Performing Arts Building Foundation. He alleges the three nonprofits acted in violation of the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, and Massachusetts state law against forced labor and trafficking.
Specifically, Ortolani’s lawsuit claims that the church-funded Performing Arts Center in Brewster “was built on the backs of children forced to labor without pay.” It alleges that several boys living in the Community, including Ortolani, were subjected to “forced labor and trafficking as they constructed the Center.”
Community of Jesus, in response, has said that David and Ellen Ortolani were managers of the project and that Ellen Ortolani signed waiver forms and acknowledgments stating that the work performed by Oliver Ortolani and her two other sons was voluntary.
The three nonprofits have since filed a lawsuit against Oliver’s parents. The suit seeks compensation from the parents for any damages and legal fees should their son’s lawsuit succeed.
Community of Jesus, founded in the 1960s on waterfront land in Orleans, is an ecumenical Christian community in the Benedictine monastic tradition, according to its website. Members include celibate men and women, families and single individuals who live in private homes near the stone church at 5 Bay View Drive. Church members are joined in a common commitment of love and service to God, to each other and to the world, the website states.
In 2000, when the church building was dedicated, there were an estimated 325 members. The membership is at 230 now, according to the website.
Community of Jesus seeks DeLude’s remaining messages
According to the Oct. 1 motion, DeLude’s lawyer has already submitted 45 pages of communications out of an estimated 94 pages. DeLude’s lawyer claims the remaining pages are protected under the First Amendment and that the request is irrelevant to the case, according to the motion.
Oliver Ortolani’s lawyer claims the remaining pages are work product.
The work-product privilege protects “documents and tangible things that are prepared in anticipation of litigation or for trial” from discovery by the opposing party, according to the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School.
“In typical harassing fashion of this high demand and control group, the Community of Jesus served a subpoena seeking irrelevant and privileged documents from Mr. Delude in a clear attempt to intimidate and punish him for his work on behalf of survivors,” said Kim Dougherty of Justice Law Collaborative in an Oct. 15 email.
The Oct. 1 motion is filled with misrepresentations regarding the subpoena negotiations, Dougherty said.
“Defendants well know they are not entitled to documents that constitute work product privilege, and they are improperly seeking to circumvent well established law by serving multiple harassing subpoenas on various individuals,” Dougherty added.
Attorneys for the Community, on the other hand, allege the remaining pages played a critical role in Oliver Ortolani’s lawsuit. The pages contain email and text messages between DeLude and other individuals, according to Jeffrey Robbins, an attorney for Community of Jesus and the other two nonprofits. In an Oct. 12 call, Robbins said the remaining pages should be part of the discovery phase of the case.
Robbins said the documents do not qualify as work product because DeLude and others sending and receiving the messages do not have an attorney-client relationship with Ortolani’s lawyer.
Joseph D. Lipchitz, another attorney for the nonprofits, who signed the Oct. 1 motion, argues that the documents are nonprivileged communications between DeLude, the Ortolani family and their lawyers and contain critical, discoverable material.
DeLude declined to comment on Oct. 12.
The three nonprofits are requesting oral arguments on the motion.
DeLude founded Rock Harbor Truth in 2025
DeLude founded Rock Harbor Truth in 2025. The organization is led by “survivors of high-control religious and institutional systems.” One of its missions is to support survivors as they rebuild their lives, according to its website.
The organization has sponsored author talks and events supporting people who have left the Community of Jesus. It has participated in a Community Walk for Truth on April 3, next to the Community of Jesus property in Orleans.
Denise Coffey writes about real estate, commercial development, the grocery industry, tourism and municipal government. Contact her at dcoffey@capecodonline.com.
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