February 04, 2006

Priest lied to police, investigator tells court

TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade

By MARK REITER
BLADE STAFF WRITER

The Rev. Gerald Robinson lied to police when he was questioned in 1980 about the slaying of a nun in the chapel at the former Mercy Hospital, an investigator said yesterday at a hearing in Lucas County Common Pleas Court.

Tom Ross, an investigator for the county prosecutor's office, said Father Robinson told then-Toledo police Detective Art Marx that he had heard the confession of the person who killed Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, but he later recanted the statement.

Father Robinson, who was a chaplain at the hospital, emerged as a suspect early in the investigation and was interviewed by Mr. Marx in the weeks after the nun was strangled and stabbed multiple times in the hospital chapel. He was indicted for the murder of Sister Margaret Ann in 2004, after authorities reopened the investigation into the murder. A trial in the high-profile case is scheduled to begin April 17.

Posted by kshaw at February 4, 2006 10:55 AM