NEW JERSEY
Daily Record
James T. Hanley, admitted child molester and former priest, answered the phone Wednesday at the voluntary psychiatric unit of St. Mary's Hospital in Passaic where he is a patient.
He had missed a morning hearing on aggravated assault charges in a Jersey City courtroom where TV cameras had been waiting for him. He said he could not get away. He said he expects to be in the hospital for the rest of the week.
Hanley, a former Mendham priest, has been in the news over the past couple months --confronting some of his victims on the Paterson street where he has been living, later getting charged with aggravated assault against three people at a Secaucus Hotel where he said he hoped to stay before moving. The Hudson County prosecutor decided not to downgrade those charges and a Superior Court judge said on Wednesday the case would now be sent to a grand jury.