TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade
By DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR
The Rev. Gerald Robinson’s defense team opened its case yesterday by calling five police officers to the stand and grilling them over inconsistencies and omissions from investigations into the murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl on April 5, 1980 — Holy Saturday.
Alan Konop, one of Father Robinson’s four defense attorneys, pointed out that Leslie Kerner, a witness for the prosecution, testified Thursday in the Lucas County Common Pleas Court trial that on the morning of the murder she saw Father Robinson standing at the doors of the chapel in Mercy Hospital — adjacent to the sacristy where the nun was slain.
Under questioning yesterday, Toledo police Sgt. Steve Forrester acknowledged that 1980 police reports based on interviews with Ms. Kerner made no mention of a priest.
Ms. Kerner and another witness for the prosecution testified in Judge Thomas Osowik’s courtroom that they knew Father Robinson and that they saw him at or near the chapel around the time of the murder.