By David Yonke
Toledo Blade
April 23, 2006
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060423/NEWS10/604230416
Members of a fledgling Catholic church not affiliated with the Toledo diocese offered prayers yesterday for the Rev. Gerald Robinson and Sister Margaret Ann Pahl.
Resurrection Polish National Catholic Church, formed in February mostly by local Catholics whose churches were closed by Toledo Bishop Leonard Blair, offered a Mass of intention for Father Robinson, on trial for murder in Lucas County Common Pleas Court, and Sister Margaret Ann, the Roman Catholic nun he is accused of killing on April 5, 1980.
"It is not because of the trial. Everybody needs prayers," said the Rev. Jaroslaw Nowak, pastor. "We don't judge. We just ask God for truth and justice and healing."
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Resurrection Polish National Catholic Church members pray for the Rev. Gerald Robinson and Sister Margaret Ann Pahl. Photo by The Blade/Jeremy Wadsworth |
About 30 people attended the service in Sylvania's Advent Lutheran Church, which Resurrection rents for its 4 p.m. Mass each Saturday.
Jack Sparagowski, one of the founders of Resurrection, said the parish committee decided this week to hold the Mass for the intention of Father Robinson and Sister Margaret Ann and wanted to stay away from controversy. The church barred television cameras from the service.
"It's not political, but most here will support Father Robinson," Mr. Sparagowski said, because the priest used to fill in at the now-closed St. Anthony's Church, which had a Polish heritage, and celebrated Mass in Polish at Easter.
Father Robinson, 68, a Toledo diocesan priest since he was ordained in 1964, was placed on leave after being arrested by the Lucas County prosecutor's cold-case squad April 23, 2004. He has since retired but wears his clerical collar in court.
When his murder trial resumes tomorrow morning, the first of about 40 expert witnesses will begin testifying in what is believed to be the first U.S. trial of a Roman Catholic priest accused of killing a Roman Catholic nun.
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The Rev. Jaroslaw Nowak celebrates Mass for members of Resurrection Polish National Catholic Church, formed in February mostly by local Catholics whose churches were shut by Toledo Bishop Leonard Blair. About 30 attended the service in Sylvania's Advent Lutheran, which Resurrection rents for its Mass each Saturday. Photo by The Blade/Jeremy Wadsworth |
Opening statements in the case were given Friday morning by Lucas County Assistant Prosecutor Dean Mandros and defense attorney Alan Konop, after which the 10 women and six men in the jury were taken to the former Mercy Hospital, now a college, where the crime occurred.
In a 40-minute tour of the hospital complex, jurors quietly viewed the sacristy, where the 71-year-old old nun was strangled and stabbed multiple times the day before Easter.
They also walked through the small, two-room apartment where Father Robinson, then the hospital's chaplain, lived at the time.
Expected to take the stand tomorrow will be members of Sister Margaret Ann's religious order, the Sisters of Mercy of the Union, who lived and worked at the hospital with the slain nun.
Among those also scheduled to appear sometime during the trial is Henry Lee, one of the nation's leading forensic investigators. Mr. Lee has consulted in many high-profile murder trials, including that of O.J. Simpson, and in early 2005 he visited Toledo and inspected the sacristy where Sister Margaret Ann was slain, examined a letter opener Father Robinson is accused of using to stab the nun, and analyzed other physical evidence for the prosecution.
Another forensic expert on the state's list is Paulette Sutton, one of the foremost authorities on blood-pattern transfer analysis, which prosecutors say will link the priest's letter opener to the crime.
The defense is expected to call eight to 10 witnesses, including Kathleen Reichs, a forensic anthropologist whose writings inspired the Fox TV crime show Bones.
In his opening statements Friday, Mr. Mandros methodically explained how prosecutors believe Father Robinson committed the gruesome crime, including choking the nun so forcefully that he broke two bones in her neck and popped blood vessels in her eyes.
The killer then laid the nun, barely alive, on the floor of the sacristy and stabbed her in the heart nine times in the shape of an inverted cross.
He then covered her body with an altar cloth and stabbed her 22 more times before escaping.
Mr. Mandros said he will produce witnesses who saw Father Robinson in the hospital chapel around the time of the murder and who heard footsteps running down a hallway and stopping in front of the priest's apartment shortly after the killing.
Mr. Konop emphasized that the state's evidence is entirely circumstantial and said there are numerous important discrepancies and inconsistencies. He said Friday that DNA samples found on the nun's underwear and under her fingernails did not match Father's Robinson's DNA.
The defense attorney likened the prosecution's efforts to putting together a puzzle with pieces that don't fit.
Judge Thomas Osowik has said the trial is expected to last three to four weeks.
Contact David Yonke at: dyonke@theblade.com or 419-724-6154.
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