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	State, Defense Focus on Police Work in Priest Trial By James Ewinger Cleveland Plain Dealer May 6, 2006 http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf? /base/news/114690431347620.xml&coll=2 Toledo - The first five defense witnesses in a priest's murder trial were all detectives who investigated the case - three of them when the slaying occurred in 1980. The Rev. Gerald Robinson's lawyers have said the evidence against him is incomplete and contradictory, with many missing records. Robinson, 68, is accused of choking and fatally stabbing Sister Margaret Ann Pahl in a hospital chapel. Alan S. Konop, the lead defense lawyer, spent most of Friday picking away at details in the Toledo detectives' reports. But Assistant County Prosecutor Dean Mandros seized an opportunity late in the afternoon, using his cross-examination of one detective to summarize much of his case against Robinson. That detective was Arthur Marx, a retired officer who led the original probe 26 years ago. Through two weeks of testimony, Konop has tried to demonstrate that many police reports have disappeared. He also looked for inconsistencies between testimony and records that still exist. For example, three prosecution witnesses Thursday put Robinson near the crime scene at a time when he had told police he was still in his hospital quarters. Konop began Friday challenging Sgt. Steve Forrester, head of the Toledo Police Department's cold-case unit, noting that some of the more dramatic testimony never showed up in the initial police summaries. The three key prosecution witnesses all had information unknown to the original investigators, because each claimed to have seen Robinson but never told police, thinking it unremarkable that a priest should be near the chapel. Forrester also testified that police interviewed many people, but did not note every meeting or tip, because some yielded no information or came from unreliable sources. Konop's final witness for the day was Marx. He was the one who found the letter opener suspected as the murder weapon. Through his questioning, Konop suggested that Toledo police did a weak job of looking for trace evidence, even though the crime scene was less than a mile from police headquarters. But through Marx, Mandros was able to reopen key points in the state's case, including the idea that Pahl's assailant knew her and was in a fury, because of the dozens of stab wounds. The defense has suggested that before she was stabbed, Pahl was choked nearly to death by someone who had hands much larger than Robinson's. Marx told Mandros the coroner may have suspected that before the autopsy, but that was not her ultimate conclusion. Marx also told Mandros about how Robinson initially told police that the real killer confessed to him, but that Robinson later recanted and admitted he only said this "to protect himself." Mandros also offered an indirect explanation for some of the reports. He got Marx to tell how most reports went to a deputy police chief who was "a very strict Catholic," and who had appeared to intercede once when detectives were questioning Robinson. Marx, who also is Catholic, said one interrogation was interrupted by the same deputy chief and a monsignor. The detective present was told to leave, and the deputy chief and church official led Robinson out after talking to him privately. Testimony resumes Monday. To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: jewinger@plaind.com, 216-999-3905
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