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	Ex-Priest Still Jailed in Incident with Bat He Remains Held on $50,000 Bail after Hudson County Clash By Abbott Koloff Dail Record [New Jersey] December 12, 2006 http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061212/COMMUNITIES/612120317/1203/NEWS01 James T. Hanley, a former priest who has admitted to sexually abusing children decades ago in Mendham, appeared in a Hudson County courtroom Monday on charges from an incident in which he allegedly brandished a bat during an argument with a hotel manager. Hanley spent the past month in Hudson County jail, where he is being held on $50,000 bail after being indicted on third-degree charges of making terroristic threats and possession of a weapon, law enforcement officials said Monday. Hanley has said he was using the bat as a walking cane. Howard Bell, an assistant Hudson County prosecutor, said Monday's court appearance was a routine status conference. The public defender representing Hanley did not return a phone call. Hanley, former pastor of St. Joseph's Church in Mendham, has been accused of molesting children in Mendham and elsewhere decades ago. He was a central figure in a lawsuit involving more than two dozen victims who received a $5 million settlement from the Paterson Roman Catholic Diocese in 2005. He had been charged with aggravated assault earlier this year after police alleged he swung a baseball bat during a dispute with management at a hotel in Secaucus. He said he was staying in the hotel while in moving from an apartment in Paterson. Abbott Koloff can be reached at (973) 989-0652 or akoloff@gannett.com.
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