Hearing requested in nun’s 1980 death
Review of priest’s statements soughtAttorneys for the Rev. Gerald Robinson have asked for a hearing in Lucas County Common Pleas Court to resolve questions about statements the priest gave to police in 1980.
The request was among the motions filed in the murder trial of Father Robinson, who is accused in the fatal stabbing death of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl on Easter weekend 1980 in a chapel at the former Mercy Hospital near downtown Toledo.
Defense attorneys who are representing the priest want to know whether police taped an interview with Father Robinson on April 18, 1980, or if they have supplemental notes, reports, or summaries of his statements.
The motion said a hearing was needed, in part, for the court to review whether Father Robinson’s constitutional rights were violated or if any irregularities occurred that would be grounds for having the case dismissed.
Judge Thomas Osowik had given attorneys until tomorrow to file motions in the case. A trial for Father Robinson, 67, is scheduled for April 17 [2006].
Sister Margaret Ann was found stabbed and strangled in the chapel’s sacristy. Father Robinson was arrested in April, 2004, after investigators reopened the case.
In response to a similar request from defense attorneys, prosecutors last month denied in a motion that the interview conducted by then-Detective Art Marx was taped.
Attorneys for Father Robinson also asked the court to suppress statements he gave to police when he was arrested at his home in 2004. In addition, they’re challenging the qualifications of certain witnesses prosecutors intend to use at trial.
A pretrial hearing in the case is scheduled for tomorrow, when Judge Osowik could make a decision on whether to hold a hearing on the motions.
Accused priest tried to blame someone elseFirst of all, the interrogation of 1980 was never properly recorded by the police. This new revelation about Fr. Robinson's alleged lie is what the investigator claims to have recalled from 1980.By John Seewer
TOLEDO - A priest accused of stabbing a nun to death in 1980 told authorities shortly after the killing that someone else had confessed to killing the woman, an investigator said Friday during a pretrial hearing.
The priest later told investigators that he had lied about the confession because he wanted to deflect a police detective's accusatory tone during an interrogation 26 years ago, said Tom Ross, an investigator with the Lucas County Prosecutor's office.
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There is not a word if Fr. Robinson confirms or denies his alleged "lie" about the confession.
The common-sense question is, if he had lied in the first place why would he have corrected it now if he indeed were the killer? What good does it for him?
This "news" report (and especially its sleazy title, "tried to blame someone else") is below any standards of journalistic decency. John Seewer is a typical bigoted anti-Catholic presstitute.
Besides, none of these "new revelations" make Rev. Robinson more of a suspect.