By David Yonke
Toledo Blade
February 5, 2009
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090205/NEWS02/902050337
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| Robinson |
A juror in Gerald Robinson's 2006 murder trial expressed the opinion that the Toledo Catholic priest was guilty and should be "put away" before any evidence was presented, according to a newly filed affidavit.
The statement, filed last week in Lucas County Common Pleas Court, quotes Toledoan Phyllis Bojarski as saying that juror Scott Pelger made the comments to her after he had been selected to serve on the jury - but before the priest's trial began.
Robinson, 70, was convicted May 11, 2006, in the 1980 murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl and is serving a 15-year-to-life sentence at the Hocking Correctional Facility in southern Ohio.
Robinson's attorney, John Donahue of Perrysburg, included the affidavit as a supplemental document to his amended petition for postconviction relief. The petition, filed Jan. 16, contends that Robinson's constitutional rights were violated during the trial on three counts - ineffective counsel, key evidence withheld by the state, and pervasive media coverage depriving him of an impartial jury - and seeks to have the murder conviction overturned and a new trial ordered.
Lucas County prosecutors have asked Judge Gene Zmuda for "adequate" time to respond to the lengthy petition, which raises myriad points and contains 400 to 500 pages of documents in its appendix.
Dean Mandros, chief of the criminal division of the prosecutor's office, said yesterday, "We're reviewing the matter and looking into the allegations."
The affidavit says Ms. Bojarski worked for Toledo Public Schools, where she became acquainted with Mr. Pelger. She said she and other unidentified people discussed the Robinson case with Mr. Pelger before any evidence was presented.
"During the above discussion, Mr. Pelger expressed his opinion that the defendant, Gerald Robinson, was guilty. I told Mr. Pelger that he should not be discussing the case, because he was serving as a juror. But Mr. Pelger just laughed my warning off, and agreed with the others who said that Robinson had sexually abused children and should be 'put away,'•" the affidavit states.
She said she called the office of Alan Konop, one of the four defense attorneys who represented the priest in the trial, to tell him about Mr. Pelger's comments, but "I was never contacted by Mr. Konop or by any of Gerald Robinson's trial lawyers."
After Robinson was convicted, Ms. Bojarski said she had another conversation with Mr. Pelger, who "told me that he and other members of the jury pressured a female black juror to vote guilty, even though she thought Robinson was innocent."
Robinson appealed to the Ohio 6th District Court of Appeals, which upheld the guilty verdict, and then to the Ohio Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case.
In addition to the amended petition in common pleas court, Mr. Donahue said he will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. He said the case raises constitutional issues of broad concern involving increasingly common cold-case investigations.
In a separate court case involving Robinson, a civil trial that had been scheduled for May 4 has been postponed until next year.
The case involves allegations by a Toledo woman that Robinson and others sexually abused her in satanic rituals when she was a child.
Judge Ruth Ann Franks of Lucas County Common Pleas Court, citing a request by all concerned parties, rescheduled the trial for March 8, 2010, for the Toledo woman, who sued anonymously as Survivor Doe with her husband, Spouse Doe.
Robinson has retired and is barred from public ministry, but remains a priest in the Toledo diocese because he has not been laicized by the Vatican.
Contact David Yonke at: dyonke@theblade.com or 419-724-6154.
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