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	Ex-Mendham Priest Arrested in Bat Incident By Daily Record The Associated Press, carried in Daily Record [Sucaucus NJ] March 13, 2006 http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060313/NEWS01/603130315/1005 SECAUCUS -- James T. Hanley, a former pastor at St. Joseph's in Mendham at the center of a highly publicized sexual abuse case, faces criminal charges for allegedly slamming a baseball bat on a hotel manager's front desk. Hanley, 69, was charged with aggravated assault and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose over accusations that he was violent toward a desk manager at the Extended Stay America Secaucus-Meadowlands hotel on Friday. Hanley, who was removed from the priesthood in 2002, was arrested by officers, but claimed he suffered a leg injury during the apprehension. Although he is to appear back in court, Hanley was released because he needed medical treatment for the leg injury, said police Sgt. Dominick De Gennaro. Hanley said he was using the baseball bat as a cane, and that he hit the desk after a manager refused to give him his room key until he paid his bill. But the desk clerk had a different version of events. Osei Karikari, 23, said in published reports that Hanley told him he was handsome, offered him gifts, hugged him and kissed his cheek. Karikari said Hanley later became verbally abusive, so the manager called police, who arrived saw Hanley swinging a metal bat. Hanley, who was also a priest in Parsippany, Wayne, Clifton and Pequannock, is due to appear in state Superior Court in Jersey City on March 22. More than two dozen men who said they were abused by Hanley sued the Paterson Roman Catholic Diocese and agreed to a $5 million settlement last year. They claimed that church officials, including former Bishop Frank Rodimer, failed to take action to protect the youths. Hanley was not sued because he cooperated with the plaintiffs, providing a statement detailing sexual acts he did with about 20 of the boys. The statement also said he admitted to Rodimer in 1984 that he had molested about a dozen boys.
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