Allegations renew nun's death case

Toledo Blade ^ | 25 april 2004 | David Yonke

[narses]

CBS/AP) One of the first police officers at the scene of the 1980 killing of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl in Toledo, Ohio, told CBS News Tuesday that he believed the slaying was not investigated as vigorously as it should have been.

The Rev. Gerald Robinson, a Roman Cathloc priest who worked at the same hospital as the 71-year-old nun, was charged this weekend with the bizarre, ritualistic slaying. He is being held on $200,000 bond.

In an interview on The Early Show, retired Toledo police officer Dave Davison said Robinson’s was the only name ever mentioned as a suspect when the crime was first investigated in 1980.

“Everybody I talked to - and I talked to dozens - said either Father Robinson or that they didn't know his name, they said it was a priest,” Davison told co-anchor Harry Smith. “I mean, there was no other name mentioned.”

Davison, a patrolman at the time, was not involved in the investigation. He happened to be among the first at the scene because he was having breakfast in the hospital cafeteria when the nun’s body was found in the chapel.

“A nurse ran down, told us that we should get up to the chapel, that there was a nun dead,” Davison recalls. “We ran up. We got there before the call came into the police department, because everybody at the hospital knew us.”

The investigation that followed “seemed to go nowhere," the retired officer said. “I mean, you talk to the guys, ask what progress. And basically they would toss you off. So it didn't go anywhere.”

One of the police investigators at the time now says that he thought that the case had not been thoroughly investigated, and Davison agrees, suggesting that authorities may have been pressured to keep the investigation stalled.

“You really don't want to call it a coverup,” Davison said, noting “I think the diocese took control of him.” The priest was removed from Mercy Hospital, where he was practicing, but stayed in Toledo.

“You have to remember on our department, the people in the upper command levels that had control on this are good Catholics. And I'm sure that some kind of friendly deal was cut. I think basically he was under house arrest under the church care.”

After he retired, Davison petitioned to get information on the case, but the status of the case was changed. “They started giving me the information,” he said. “They reread what they were giving me. It was a cold case, inactive. They put it in active status, which under the Freedom of Information Act, they don't have to give you anything. It stopped. It dried up.”

Although Father Robinson officiated at the nun’s funeral, he remained a suspect, but time passed without anyone being charged.

Then just last year, police got a break. A Toledo woman came forward claiming she'd been sexually abused as a child by Catholic priests during Satanic rituals. Although her claims haven't been proven, her mention of Father Robinson convinced detectives to re-open the murder case.

Robinson made an initial appearance Monday in Toledo Municipal Court. Judge Mary Trimboli set bail at $200,000 and scheduled a preliminary hearing for next Monday.

No plea was entered and Robinson did not speak during the brief court session.

After the hearing, friends and supporters of the priest were trying to raise bail money, said Robinson's attorney, John Thebes.

"I think he's over the initial shock," Thebes said. He said he expects the case to be presented to a grand jury this week.

He said the case would be difficult to prosecute.

"Witnesses die, witnesses' memories become faded over time," he said. "Twenty-four years is a heck of a long time. It's difficult to ascertain who was where, who said what. There are many, many issues that have to be delved into."

Police detective Steve Forrester and Tom Ross, an investigator with the Lucas County prosecutor's office, told The Blade newspaper that the nun's killing was part of a "ceremony" in the chapel. They would not elaborate.

In December, authorities re-examined old evidence and concluded that the murder weapon, which they did not identify, was "in the control of the suspect." They used "blood transfer patterns," a rarely used technique that analyzes the patterns made when an item is laid down. DNA evidence was not a factor, Forrester said.

A message seeking additional comment was left with Ross on Sunday.

The woman whose allegations led to the reopening of the case testified before the Diocesan Review Board on June 11 and wrote a detailed statement alleging years of abuse by priests during her childhood.

"She did mention Father Robinson and that he was involved in the ritualistic abuse of her," said Claudia Vercelloti, a director of the Toledo office for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and has been in contact with the woman.

The woman, now in her 40s, described satanic ceremonies in which priests placed her in a coffin filled with cockroaches, forced her to ingest what she believed to be a human eyeball and penetrated her with a snake "to consecrate these orifices to Satan."

She also alleged that the clerics killed an infant and a 3-year-old child, performed an abortion on her and mutilated dogs during the rituals, according to a copy of her statement.

Before his arrest, Robinson was performing pastoral care at nursing homes and hospitals in the Toledo area, the Toledo diocese said.

Vercelloti said on Sunday that the woman did not know that Robinson had been a suspect in Sister Pahl's killing. "I don't know if she knew what she was setting in motion," she said.

The woman's allegations were brought to the attention of prosecutors in a letter received in December, assistant prosecutor Gary Cook said Monday. He would not say who sent the letter.

The diocese had decided against giving the allegations to authorities, said Sally Oberski, a diocese spokeswoman.

"They were found to be non-credible," she said Sunday. The allegations were against several priests and Robinson's "name was mentioned among several others."

Vercelloti said the diocese should have given the information to police and prosecutors because Robinson had been a suspect in the nun's death.

[heyheyhey]

I commented the very text in my post #62 above.

Awful spin by CBS.

[heyheyhey]

Update (8 minutes ago),

Supporters Raise Bail for Father Robinson

TOLEDO -- Friends of Father Gerald Robinson said they have enough money to free the priest accused of killing a nun 24 years ago. Supporters have come up with the $600,000 worth of property in order to get him out on bond.

News 11 was told by Jack Sparagowski who's a member of Saint Anthony's Church and the leader of the Defense Fund Committee that Father Robinson's lawyer filed the paperwork Tuesday all while Father Robinson sits in jail. "For us we are elated that some folks stepped up and were willing to post property so we can get him out," said Sparagowski.

Sparagowski said four or five people came forward including two of Father Robinson's relatives, Robinson's brother and Sparagowski said maybe Robinson's nephew. Now the paperwork needs to get processed and then Father Robinson will be released. "Probably we'll hug him and say 'We're glad to see you," said Sparagowski.

An interesting twist to this case is Sparagowski is heading up the defense fund, but he used to be a criminal investigator prior to retiring. Now he's been hired by the defense to look into the allegations against Father Robinson. "I'm very confident he's not guilty," said Sparagowski. He went on to tell us he's been checking some sources close to this case. "There have been some things that I have already confirmed and it would certainly point to father's innocence," Sparagowski told News 11.

The guess is that Father Robinson will be out by mid-day Wednesday. Sparagowski told us the committee has collected about $6,000 for the legal expenses that will be involved with this case. That money has come from private donations and more are expected to come in.

---

The diocese of Toledo has the money to pay for clerical homosexual excesses but no money to defend its own Catholic priest of 40 years?

[Brytani]

I can think of a few ways they can not verify this weapon as the murder weapon.

1. If blood or other body material got into the "hilt" that can not be extracted for DNA evidence.

2. A tool mark expert might be able to compare the wounds to the weapon using pictures from the original autopsy. Hopefully, during the original autopsy, clear pictures of the wound and damage to organs/bone was taken.

3. This would be a long shot, as well as gruesome way to compare knife to the wounds. Extracting the body for a second autopsy. Advances in technology could produce a match to the wounds. Even if the body has decomposed to the point where soft tissue is no longer viable for study, the poor womens bones would still show the scars from the attack.

[Diva]

I have a good friend who grew up in Toledo and her brother was in the seminary. She is a member of FR so I have sent her a link. Maybe she remembers this story.

[Diva]

Shall we now recall that Cardinal Egan has abolished the office of exorcist in the Archdiocese of New York and banned the exorcists from working who were licensed under Cardinal O'Connor?

He did??!! Father LeBar was the exorcist under O'Connor and a well respected Pshychologist who in the beginning did not believe in flying objects and weird supernatural occurances. After becoming the Exorcist for NY he changed his mind.

[heyheyhey]

The original text (link in post #1) from the Toledo Blade says,

The discovery involved "blood transfer patterns" that, the detectives said, conclusively placed the murder weapon at the scene of the homicide. Unlike many unsolved crimes that are reopened decades later, DNA evidence was not a factor, Detective Forrester said.

DNA evidence would definitely be helpful, but DNA is not a factor in this case.

Fr. Robinson was the ONLY suspect, and ONLY because he was believed to be "near at the time of the murder," and because "some people thought it might be the priest" (see post #81),

"Everybody I talked to - and I talked to dozens - said either Father Robinson or that they didn't know his name, they said it was a priest," Davison told co-anchor Harry Smith.

Which seems perfectly logical; everybody who watches movies knows that priests kill in chapels and wrap their victim's corpse in the altar cloth /sarcasm off.

Note that in 1980 most hospitals wouldn't have security cameras. Sister Pahl was very well known as she "was a former director of the hospital's nursing school and also was an administrator at hospitals in Toledo and Tiffin" (see post #57), so she could have had real enemies. Anybody could have sneaked in to a hospital on Saturday night and commit the murder. The body was discovered on Easter Sunday morning.

You are correct in point 2 and 3, but why were these things not checked out in 1980??? Is it going to be easier to do it after 24 years?

The alleged weapon doesn't look very special, looks like a regular letter knife found in many desks. The knife seized from Fr. Robinson is pictured here,

[heyheyhey]

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/8535963.htm

Priest charged with murder described as shy, dedicated

JOHN SEEWER

Associated Press

TOLEDO, Ohio - Parishioners know the Rev. Gerald Robinson as a dedicated Roman Catholic priest who rarely went anywhere without wearing his collar and never turned down a request for help.

Authorities give a much different description.

They say Robinson strangled and stabbed a nun about 30 times in a "ritualistic" killing on Easter weekend in 1980. Another nun found the body, covered by an altar cloth and surrounded by burning candles.

Friends say he was extremely shy. Yet he was popular in the city's Polish neighborhoods, and parishioners often asked him to perform marriages and baptisms.

Robinson sometimes delivered sermons and heard confessions in Polish, which he speaks fluently. For the last six years, he celebrated Mass on Easter weekend and Christmas at St. Anthony church, an inner-city church founded in 1881.

"He always drew a big crowd when he would give Mass," said Mary Ann Plewa, a distant cousin. "People always wanted to come hear him."

Members of St. Anthony set up a legal defense fund for him. The 19-county Diocese of Toledo says it is saddened by Robinson's arrest but has decided against paying his legal bills.

In the years after his co-worker's murder, Robinson never mentioned the death, friends recall, even though police say he was a suspect at the time. He later became pastor at several parishes and administered to the sick and dying in nursing homes.

He never turned down a call for help or a donation for charity. "Sometimes, I thought he was too generous," said Bea Orlowski, his former secretary at St. Anthony.

His duties over the last decade mainly have been limited to visiting patients at hospitals and nursing homes and giving last rites. He also performed Mass once a month at a nursing home.

For several years, Robinson and Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, 71, worked closely at Mercy Hospital. He was the hospital chaplain and she was the chapel's caretaker.

It was Robinson who presided over her funeral on a stormy afternoon three days after her body was discovered.

Some hospital employees told police they suspected the priest may have been involved in the death because he was one of the few people near the chapel, which was tucked away in the hospital.

Jan Schaeffer, a nurse in the hospital's emergency department, said she had a bad feeling about the priest, whom she described as extremely introverted.

"He's just the kind of person I didn't want much to do with," she said.

Police could never gather enough evidence to bring charges against anyone. Robinson, meanwhile, was appointed pastor at three parishes in Toledo a year later.

Robinson, 66, was born in Toledo and has spent his 40-year career there.

He lived a quiet life, never getting as much as traffic ticket, according to court records. He lived just steps from a police station. It was there police questioned him before charging him with murder on Friday.

Robinson, a slight man who weighs just under 150 pounds, was being held Tuesday on $200,000 bond at the Lucas County jail.

"He thought this whole thing was behind him," said John Thebes, the priest's lawyer. "He thought it was behind him in 1980 when he cooperated fully."

Investigators re-examined the nun's killing after a woman told a Diocesan Review Board in June that she was sexually and physically abused as a child by Toledo diocesan and religious-order priests during her childhood.

Authorities said that while they could not substantiate the allegations, her mention of Robinson spurred police to take another look at the slaying.

[Diva]

Jan Schaeffer, a nurse in the hospital's emergency department, said she had a bad feeling about the priest, whom she described as extremely introverted. "He's just the kind of person I didn't want much to do with," she said.

This stuff is awful!!!! I am stunned at the way this case is being reported. I was a witness in a sexual abuse case against a priest over a year ago and the press reporting was pretty bad but not anywhere near as bad as this. I guess I shouldn't be stunned as SNAP is involved.

[Brytani]

Good catch on the DNA not being applicable to the crime, though I'm wondering about that. To re-open a case after all those years normally requires at least 1 piece of proof-positive evidence and it's not always released to the public. Won't know until trial.

As for my 2 and 3rd points, yes it is easier now to compare wounds to weapons then it was 20 years ago. Advances in technology is the biggest reason, also forensic disciplines such as tool mark identification, metallurgy, trace evidence identification etc are much more advanced, used a great deal more and have all proved their worth in courts of law.

Since we know there is not a video tape sitting around somewhere showing her murder, the trial will boil down to evidence collected at the scene, her body and any evidence that came in after the murder. Should be interesting.

[heyheyhey]

This stuff is awful!!!! I am stunned at the way this case is being reported.

The way it is reported by the "fair and balanced" media is one of the reasons I strongly believe that Fr. Robinson is innocent, and I pray that justice may be served. THIS is the first in the USA, that I know of, and a classic case of charging a perfectly decent Catholic priest (his whole life as a priest has been exemplary) without any solid evidence.

The second reason that made me believe he is innocent in the 1980 murder case is how it all began. A lady in her 40's said she was fed with a human eyeball and penetrated with a snake by a group of Catholic priests.

What a ****ing nonsense! She talked about dogs and two kids killed in her presence; is it so hard to prove anything like that ever happened??? Any missing kids, or corpses found at that time?

SNAP has already called her a "victim."

[heyheyhey]

It is easier now to compare wounds to weapons then it was 20 years ago. Advances in technology is the biggest reason, also forensic disciplines such as tool mark identification, metallurgy, trace evidence identification etc are much more advanced, used a great deal more and have all proved their worth in courts of law

The murder weapon in this case wasn't exactly a chainsaw. The knife of Fr. Robinson (pictured above) looks ordinarily.

There is a good chance that the bones of the victim were hit, as she suffered over 30 wounds, and the tip of the knife would be dulled because of it. However, on the photo it looks nice and pointy.

[saradippity]

The reporting of this event is dreadful;very amateurish,sophmoric and misleading. Additionally,it is being hyped nationwide on a massive scale. Knowing our enemy,it is clear there is much more to this than meets the eye.

One thing that is certain is that someone hates the Church intensely,whether that person or persons are within or without,this is meant to be another is a series of death blows that are coming faster and furiouser. Let's try to stay on it.Thanks heyhey!!

[heyheyhey]

it is being hyped nationwide on a massive scale

Nationwide? Make it international.

This is from New Humanist, UK,

Church supported priest accused of satanic rituals

Editorial Staff 28 Apr 04

Suspect officiated at funeral of murder victim

A priest in Toledo, Ohio has been arraigned on murder charges amid accusations of sexual abuse and satanic rituals.

Writing in the Independent, Andrew Gumbel reports that 66 year-old Fr Gerald Robinson was a suspect in the murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl on Easter Sunday 24 years ago - police also believed that some sort of ritual was involved as her body had been covered with an altar cloth. There was insufficient evidence to bring the case to a conclusion, and Fr Robinson officiated at her funeral. However, last year a woman testified before a diocesan commission in Toledo that she had been sexually abused and forced to take part in satanic rituals as a child and teenager by a group of priests, including Fr Robinson.

Church officials have said that the allegations were not investigated because they did not consider the claims to be credible. Fr Robinson celebrated mass until last week, when he was arrested. A local group called SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) told reporters: "Their policy dictates that they step down the priest and launch an investigation….why was Father Gerald Robinson not stepped down, given the seriousness of the allegations?”

[heyheyhey]

http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/lateststories/index.ssf?/base/national-22/1083164650305660.xml

4/28/2004, 1:34 p.m. ET

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — The Roman Catholic bishop of Toledo has suspended a priest charged in the 1980 killing of a nun...

...On Tuesday, Bishop Leonard Blair put Robinson on a leave of absence, which means he can't celebrate any of the Catholic sacraments, including Communion.

The diocese said it has decided against paying his legal bills...

[Diva]

A local group called SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests)

I don't think this is a local group.

[Diva]

SNAP has already called her a "victim."

I'm wondering how SNAP found this woman. I may have missed this information. Snap is a national organization with many chapters thoughout the US.

[heyheyhey]

A local group called SNAP

Indeed! What else would you expect from "fair and balanced" investigative reporting?

SNAP is a national organization with Barbara Blaine of Chicago, IL as the President and David Clohessy of St. Louis, MO as its Executive Director.

[Diva]

The diocese said it has decided against paying his legal bills..

That is the usual way it goes. They (those in charge of diocese) are scared to death of the law suits and find it easier to abandon those who they may even believe are innocent. There is only one organization which helps priests that I know of in this situation, it is called Opus Bono Sacerdotii. I hope Fr. Robinson has been in contact with them.

[heyheyhey]

This case shows that even a small group of kooks with access to a telephone could in one moment paralyze whole diocese for any reason.