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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.
88 posted on 04/28/2004 7:57:25 AM PDT by heyheyhey
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To: heyheyhey
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.

89 posted on 04/28/2004 10:40:54 AM PDT by Diva
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