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	Ex-Priest in Protective Custody Admitted Molester from Morris Threatened in Jail By Abbott Koloff Daily Record April 14, 2007 http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070414/COMMUNITIES/704140332/1203 A former Morris County priest has been placed in protective custody at the Hudson County jail because of fears he would be harmed by other inmates who learned he's admitted to sexually molesting children, Hudson County authorities said Friday. James T. Hanley, a former pastor at St. Joseph's Church in Mendham, has been in the jail since October on charges that he made terroristic threats and was in possession of a weapon after allegedly waving a baseball bat at workers last year during a dispute at a Secaucus hotel. The former priest has been isolated from the rest of the jail population "for his own safety," said Kelvin Roberts, deputy director of the Hudson County Department of Corrections. Hanley, 70, has admitted to sexually abusing at least a dozen children decades ago in Mendham and other churches in Morris County. He was a central figure in a lawsuit by more than two dozen people who received a $5 million settlement two years ago from the Paterson Roman Catholic Diocese. He faces a hearing next week on charges stemming from last year's hotel incident. Oscar Aviles, director of the Hudson County Corrections Department, said Hanley was moved into a separate part of the jail on Feb. 23 after staff members heard other prisoners talking about the former priest's past. The director said Hanley did not ask for protection. "He was placed in involuntary protective custody," Aviles said. "He didn't sign himself in." The public defender who has been representing Hanley did not return phone calls the past two days. Hanley previously had been in minimum security, Aviles said, in an area reserved for older inmates and those who are handicapped. He was moved into a another unit where he has less freedom of movement, Aviles said. He's now allowed to leave his cell for one hour a day, as opposed to the eight hours each day he had been allowed in the other jail unit. Hanley still has access to a telephone and the library and is allowed visits, Aviles said. "He's entitled to all the privileges of the general population,"Aviles said. Hanley had been scheduled for a hearing in Hudson County Superior Court in Jersey City this past Thursday, before judge Sheila Venable, but that was postponed until next week because of a scheduling conflict. At next week's hearing, Hanley is expected to appeal the judge's rejection of his request to enter a pre-trial intervention program, known as PTI. The program typically allows defendants to do community service and undergo counseling in order to have the charges dropped. Hudson County prosecutors have opposed Hanley's request. Howard Bell, an assistant Hudson County prosecutor, said this week that if the appeal is denied, Hanley would be given one more chance to accept a plea bargain. Hanley previously rejected the prosecutors' offer of probation and 364 days in jail. If found guilty of making terroristic threats, a third-degree crime, Hanley would face a possible prison sentence of three to five years. At a hearing two months ago, when a judge reduced his bail from $50,000 to $20,000, it came out in court that Hanley would be homeless if released from jail. Hanley previously told the court he could return to a Garfield rooming house where he had been living, Bell said, but the court determined the rooming house wouldn't let him back. Bell said a nephew of Hanley also would not take him. Hanley has said he planned to live in the Secaucus hotel while moving from Paterson to an Essex County apartment last year. He said he was forced to move from Paterson after a victim's advocacy group handed out fliers in his neighborhood, informing residents that the former priest is an admitted child molester. Abbott Koloff can be reached at (973) 989-0652 ext. 223 or akoloff@gannett.com
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