BishopAccountability.org
	Ex-Priest Arrested after Hotel Disturbance By Leslie Brody NorthJersey.com March 12, 2006 http://www.bergen.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2MDYmZmdi ZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTY4OTYwNzAmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkz A former priest at the center of North Jersey's most notorious clergy sex-abuse case was arrested at a Secaucus hotel following a dispute Friday night. James T. Hanley, 69, was charged with aggravated assault and possession of a weapon -- a baseball bat -- for an unlawful purpose. Secaucus police said they arrested Hanley after responding to a call of a violent patron at the Extended StayAmerica Secaucus-Meadowlands at 8:44 p.m. Friday. He was released pending his court appearance because he needed medical treatment for a leg injury, said police Sgt. Dominick De Gennaro. The sergeant wouldn't elaborate on the cause of the injury, however. Hanley, who was accused of molesting nearly two dozen men when they were children, said Saturday that he was injured when the responding officers assaulted him. During a phone interview from his bed at Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center in Secaucus, Hanley said a hotel manager refused to give him his room key until he paid his bill. In response, Hanley said, he slammed the baseball bat -- which he said he'd been using as a cane -- on the front desk in frustration. The hotel manager called police, and when the officers arrived, two of them shoved guns into his face and told him to get on the floor, he said. "I almost had a heart attack," Hanley said. "I dropped the bat. I put my hands in the air." Hanley said one officer knocked him down with a karate kick that slammed against his left leg, which he said was already injured from a fall on ice two weeks ago. "Police handcuffed me and left me face down," he said. The front desk clerk gave a very different account. Osei Karikari, 23, said that Hanley, while checking in that afternoon, told Karikari he was good-looking, then kept trying to chat with him and offer him gifts, including chocolate, a beer, and a toy race car. At one point, Karikari said, Hanley suddenly put a hat on him, hugged him tight and kissed his cheek. "I pushed him away, I was disgusted," Karikari said. The clerk said Hanley became verbally abusive later that evening, so the manager called the police, who arrived and saw Hanley swinging a metal bat. Karikari said he didn't see police injure Hanley. The entire incident was captured on the hotel's video security camera, he said. De Gennaro declined to comment on Hanley's accusation, which he said the department's internal affairs unit would investigate. Hanley is due to appear in Central Judicial Processing in Superior Court in Jersey City on March 22. Hanley made headlines when 23 men said he molested them as children, igniting a crisis for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson in 2002. Twenty-one of the victims sued the diocese, accounting for a $5 million payout last year to abuse victims. Hanley has talked publicly about his remorse, as well as battles with alcoholism and bipolar disorder. He was a priest in Mendham, Parsippany, Wayne, Clifton and Pequannock. Hanley said he was staying at the hotel while he arranged his move from Paterson to Caldwell. E-mail: brody@northjersey.com
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.