Violation of rights alleged in priest's bid for hearing
By David Yonke
Toledo Blade
January 23, 2010
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100123/NEWS02/1230379
TOLEDO (OH) -- As Toledo priest Gerald Robinson watched from prison on a video hookup, attorneys argued in Lucas County Common Pleas Court yesterday whether a new hearing should be held in the cleric's murder conviction.
Attorneys for the 71-year-old Catholic priest, found guilty nearly four years ago in the 1980 murder of a nun, claimed that Robinson's legal counsel was so ineffective during the trial that his constitutional rights were violated.
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| Gerald Robinson, the Catholic priest who was convicted of murdering a nun, participates in a court hearing via a video link. Photo by DAVE ZAPOTOSKY |
They also contended that new evidence, including a reported 70 misfiled police reports from 1980 that surfaced last year, merits a new hearing.
Dean Mandros, assistant Lucas County prosecutor, has asked Judge Gene Zmuda to dismiss the case and argued that Robinson's attorneys are merely second-guessing his trial lawyers and have not introduced anything substantial enough to prompt a new hearing.
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| Richard Kerger, an attorney representing convicted priest Gerald Robinson, says the priest's trial lawyers were ineffective and his rights were violated. Photo by DAVE ZAPOTOSKY |
The legal jousting centered on an amended petition for postconviction relief filed by Robinson's attorneys as a contingency in case the priest's guilty verdict was not overturned on appeal.
Robinson's conviction was subsequently upheld by the state's 6th District Court of Appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court; the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
Yesterday's hearing was the first time Robinson appeared in the Lucas County Courthouse - albeit by video - since he was led away in handcuffs after the May 11, 2006, verdict that made headlines nationwide.
He is serving a 15-years-to-life sentence at the Hocking Correctional Facility in Nelsonville, where he watched the two-hour hearing by video from the prison's medical unit.
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| Mandros Photo by DAVE ZAPOTOSKY |
Visible on a flat-screen TV, Robinson wore a blue, short-sleeve shirt and appeared to watch the proceedings intently. He spoke only briefly at the start and end of the hearing to acknowledge that he could hear clearly.
Judge Zmuda, saying with a smile that "I have the patience of Job when it comes to taking in information," grilled Mr. Mandros and Robinson attorneys John Donahue and Richard Kerger on numerous legal details and precedents.
One of the arguments stressed by Mr. Kerger and Mr. Donahue was that Robinson's trial attorneys failed to argue strongly enough that the Rev. Jerome Swiatecki, another Toledo Catholic priest who worked with Robinson as a chaplain at the hospital where the murder occurred, could have been the person who choked and stabbed Sister Margaret Ann Pahl 31 times on Holy Saturday morning, 1980. Father Swiatecki died in 1996 at age 82.
The attorneys cited testimony from an expert witness for the prosecution, the Rev. Jeffrey Grob, an exorcist and priest from Chicago, who said symbols surrounding Sister Margaret Ann's death showed that she had been killed by someone with knowledge of Catholic ritual, such as a priest or seminarian.
Mr. Donahue and Mr. Kerger cited affidavits they filed saying that Father Swiatecki had a "hair-trigger temper, fascination with knives, and sexual deviance."
They also challenged the prosecution's time frame for the nun's murder, contending that by their account Father Swiatecki's "airtight alibi" had holes in it.
Mr. Kerger and Mr. Donahue also questioned whether the 1980 police reports discovered last year might contain evidence that could help prove their client's innocence.
Mr. Mandros told Judge Zmuda the police reports were misfiled when they were transferred to microfiche about 15 years ago.
They were discovered after a thorough search ordered by the prosecutor's office when a 1980 report that the state had not seen appeared in one of Mr. Donahue's filings.
Mr. Mandros said he did not know exactly how many police reports had been found but said he reviewed them and believes they contained nothing substantial.
He said he would give copies to Judge Zmuda and the judge will determine whether copies should be given to Robinson's attorneys.
Mr. Donahue said afterward that Judge Zmuda had done his homework, asking "thoughtful and cogent questions." The attorney spoke with Robinson by video privately after the hearing and said the priest merely said, "Thank you very much, see you in February."
Judge Zmuda could order an evidentiary hearing based on any single point or any number of points raised by Robinson's petition.
Mr. Mandros said afterward he expects the judge will need months to make his decision. "He has to look at each specific issue they raise, and God knows how many that is, and make an independent decision on whether each issue warrants a hearing," Mr. Mandros said.
Contact David Yonke at:
dyonke@theblade.com
or 419-724-6154.
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