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	Ex-Priest Pleads Guilty after Threat Associated Press, carried in North Jersey Media Group October 25, 2007 http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk1JmZnYmVsN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk3MjEyNTU0JnlyaXJ5N2Y3MTdmN3ZxZWVFRXl5Mg== JERSEY CITY — James T. Hanley, a former Roman Catholic priest at the center of a highly publicized sexual abuse case, pleaded guilty Wednesday to a weapons offense stemming from an angry outburst at a hotel. Hanley, 71, pleaded guilty in state Superior Court as part of a plea agreement that will likely count a year already spent in jail as time served. Hanley went to jail after missing a court date last October. Hanley admitted that he used an aluminum baseball bat to threaten three employees at the Extended Stay America Secaucus-Meadowlands hotel in 2006. A 23-year-old desk clerk told authorities that Hanley was angered after the clerk rebuffed his sexual advances. Unshaven and walking with the help of a cane, Hanley made no statement as he was released and left court after the plea. Hanley was removed from the priesthood in 2002, 17 years after church officials learned of complaints against him. More than two dozen men who said they were abused by priests, including Hanley, sued the Paterson Roman Catholic Diocese and agreed to a $5 million settlement in 2005. They claimed that church officials, including former Bishop Frank Rodimer, failed to take action to protect the youths. Twenty-one of the men accused Hanley. They said the abuse took place while he served at St. Joseph's Church in Mendham and Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Pequannock between 1968 and 1982. Hanley was not sued because he cooperated with the plaintiffs, providing a statement detailing sexual acts he engaged in 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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