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Hanley, 83, previously served a decade as a pastor at St. Joseph’s Church in Mendham before he was defrocked in 2003, Paterson Diocese attorney Kenneth Mullaney said.
The Diocese of Paterson then gave out nearly $5 million in settlements to 21 of Hanley’s accusers in 2004, reports say.
Mullaney did not say which nursing home Hanley died at, or whether he died of COVID-19 -- complications like many other New Jersey nursing home residents.
Hanley, who Mullaney said had still been receiving a stipend from the church, was one of the first priests to be defrocked as a result of the Roman Catholic Church national child sex abuse scandal.
Hanley also admitted to intimidating three employees with an aluminum bat at a hotel in 2006 and subsequently plead guilty to unlawful possession of a weapon, a charge reduced from assault.
Hanley also missed a court date in the assault case in December 2007 and as a result pleaded guilty the following year to a bail-jumping charge, reports say.
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