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	Ex-Priest Refuses to Accept Plea Bargain for Assault By Jeff Diamant Star-Ledger October 24, 2007 http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-8/119320389370050.xml&coll=1 The Hudson County judges spoke calmly to James Hanley, but clearly they were exasperated. Two judges, one at a time, in different courtrooms yesterday, did the math out loud for Hanley, to show the former Catholic priest who has admitted molesting child parishioners he would be better off pleading guilty in an unrelated assault case than going to trial. Hanley has been in jail in Jersey City for 12 months since missing a court date in the March 2006 assault case, which stems from a baseball bat incident at a Secaucus motel. The prosecutor has offered a plea bargain that, with his time served, would free Hanley from jail immediately, Superior Court judges Peter Vazquez and Paul DePascale noted in court. If Hanley is convicted at his trial, which began yesterday with jury selection, the longest prison sentence he could receive is five years. Given his lack of a prior criminal record -- his sex crimes were never prosecuted due to expired statutes of limitations -- he might well receive probation, but it could be an intensive probation, DePascale said. Hanley, 71, looking gaunt after a year in jail, even in his gray suit and olive green shirt, was insistent: "I would prefer to go to trial, judge," he told DePascale. The judge, seemingly baffled, kept pressing. "What it (a plea bargain) means is, you're done this morning," DePascale said. "This case would be over." Hanley nodded that he understood. Was Hanley aware, DePascale then asked, that prosecutors apparently captured the incident on videotape and could show it at trial? Again, Hanley nodded. Jury selection will continue this morning. The court needs 14 jurors for the trial, 12 plus two alternates. After 14 pass the initial cuts, prosecutor Howard Bell and public defender John Convery will be allowed to use their "peremptory challenges" to reject up to 10 jurors apiece for almost any reason. The trial is expected to last a few days.
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