TOLEDO (OH)
Microsoft News [Redmond WA]
June 18, 2026
By Lissa Guyton, WTVG
[Click here to see the video.]
TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) – The Toledo Board of Honor voted Thursday in favor of recommending that city council remove a street sign dedicated to Monsignor Jerome Schmit from downtown Toledo near Fifth Third Field.
The request to remove the sign is related to a decades-old murder. In 2006, Father Gerald Robinson was convicted of killing Sister Margaret Ann Pahl 26 years earlier.
One of Pahl’s family members claims Monsignor Schmit obstructed the murder investigation. There were questions whether an interrogation of Robinson was interrupted by Toledo Police Deputy Chief Ray Vetter, who was with Monsignor Schmit, and that Schmit then left with Robinson. Vetter said he did not remember interrupting that conversation, and Schmit died before the trial.
Sister Margaret Ann Pahl’s nephew spoke after the vote.
“I had no idea when they were voting what was going to happen but I am very happy to move on to the next step at the city council meeting,” Lee Pahl said. “I just hope everyone keeps an open mind and like I said, I hope they leave politics and religion out of it and just deal with the facts.”
Thomas Antonini, general counsel for the Diocese of Toledo, said the diocese stands behind Monsignor Schmit as an honored Toledo citizen worthy of acknowledgement.
“No competent authority has ever suggested Monsignor Schmit ever engaged in wrongdoing, did anything illegal or otherwise acted inappropriately,” Antonini said. “Any accusation based against him now is based on supposition and hypothesis with no foundation in fact.”
The chair of the Toledo Board of Honor was one of two members who voted against recommending the sign be removed.
“I think without anyone who was in that room still alive today who can tell us for sure what happened, it would be inappropriate for us to remove Monsignor Schmit’s name from the street,” Barbara Floyd said.
The vote was 3 to 2 to recommend removal of the sign.
“I think we won the battle, but the war is still going,” Lee Pahl said.
Toledo City Council has the final say. The issue is expected to go before council for a vote in July.