TOLEDO (OH)
WTOL11 [Toledo, OH]
June 15, 2026
By Brian Dugger
The honor board will meet Thursday to decide whether to recommend removing a sign honoring Monsignor Jerome Schmit from outside Fifth Third Field.
Key figures in the Father Gerald Robinson case are providing letters to the Toledo Board of Honor, making the case that the Catholic Church interfered in the investigation into Sister Margaret Ann Pahl’s murder and, at one point, publicly misrepresented the Diocese’s involvement in Robinson’s legal representation.
The Board of Honor will meet Thursday to announce whether it will recommend to Toledo City Council that a sign honoring Monsignor Jerome Schmit be removed from outside Fifth Third Field.
Family members of Sister Margaret Ann have long believed and publicly stated that Schmit interfered in getting justice for her after she was murdered by Robinson on April 5, 1980.
Stream ‘Her Name Was Sister Margaret Ann,’ now on WTOL+
In the early days of the investigation, Schmit, along with Deputy Chief Ray Vetter and attorney Henry Hershell, interrupted an interrogation with Robinson. Robinson then left the Safety Building with Hershell. 11 Investigates also discovered letters that indicated Schmit was being kept in the loop by Vetter and the police department.
The question before the board Thursday is not Robinson’s guilt. He was convicted in 2006 and later died in custody. The question is whether the city should continue publicly honoring Schmit with an honorary street sign, given the role that Sister Margaret Ann’s family, advocates and former investigators say he played in derailing the original investigation.
In testimony before the Board of Honor last month, a Vetter family member said Ray Vetter approached Schmit and asked him to get Robinson to tell police what he knew. But that is not what investigators believe happened.
Tom Ross was a member of the Toledo Police Department at the time of the murder and later was part of prosecutor Julia Bates’ cold case team that resurrected the case in 2004. In his new letter to the board, Ross said he talked to the investigators on the original case, Detective Art Marx and Lt. Bill Kina, and they expressed shock about Schmit and Vetter interrupting the interrogation. Marx and Kina, along with Hershell, have died.
According to Ross, Marx said the interruption “pretty much shut down the investigation” as it related to Robinson.
Ross also wrote that Robinson had not asked for legal representation during the interrogation. According to Ross, Kina also told him Robinson had never asked for an attorney and said an attorney cannot claim a client’s right to legal counsel unless the client or suspect makes that request.
Later in the letter, Ross disclosed what appears to be a significant piece of new information. Ross wrote that, during the original investigation, the Catholic Diocese claimed it had never retained Hershell as an attorney. He also wrote that Hershell later said publicly he was representing Robinson pro bono and without charge.
But Ross wrote that, when the cold case team executed a search warrant at the Diocese and obtained Robinson’s personnel file and employment records, investigators found a receipt showing the Catholic Church had paid Hershell $10,000 to represent Robinson’s interests in 1980.
On Monday afternoon, the Diocese sent a message to 11 Investigates, saying the receipt doesn’t exist in Father Robinson’s file, saying the following:
“Upon review of our files on Gerald Robinson, no such receipt was found.
“Sister Margaret Ann Pahl’s tragic death occurred 45 years and three bishops ago. Father Gerald Robinson was convicted 20 years ago and died before the current Bishop Daniel E. Thomas was installed. The Diocese of Toledo today cannot speak to the decisions made so long ago by either civil authorities or by the local church. The Diocese cooperates with civil authorities in any matter involving a crime, as was the case following Robinson’s arrest when the prosecutor’s office was provided access to Robinson’s file.”
For Sister Margaret Ann’s family and advocates, they believe Schmit, a powerful figure in the church, was helping shape the handling of the case.
“His role as a monsignor put him in uniquely in that position to influence the investigation. He was the get-it-done priest. If the diocese needed money raised, he was the person to get it done. If they needed something accomplished, he was the person to go do it and if you look to the 1980 letters seized during the no-knock search warrants from Father Ray Fisher that were admitted into trial, they have Monsignor Schmit implicated in those letters and his involvement in this case specifically as he was keeping the bishop apprised,” said Claudia Vercellotti, the founder of the Ohio chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “Monsignor Schmit was involved on the backside and then he was involved front and center when he entered the safety building when Father Gerald Robinson was about to be interrogated for the second time.”
Ross’ letter is not the only material being provided to the board.
Bates, the Lucas County prosecutor who resurrected the case, provided a letter in which she wrote that her office “experienced many difficulties in this case,” including an inability to secure Robinson’s personnel file until it was obtained with two search warrants.
Bates also wrote that the trial transcript reflects that Robinson’s interview with two seasoned homicide detectives was interrupted by the deputy chief, Schmit and a Diocese-hired attorney. She wrote that the interview was terminated and “the investigation stopped for over two decades.”
David Yonke, who covered the case daily for The Blade and authored “Sin, Shame & Secrets: A True Story of the Murder of a Nun, the Conviction of a Priest, and the Cover-up in the Catholic Church,” was even more definitive about his belief in the church’s actions.
In his letter, Yonke wrote: “Based on trial testimony, police reports, numerous official documents, and interviews with law-enforcement officials, it is clear that Monsignor Schmit and the Toledo Catholic Diocese helped prevent the arrest of Father Robinson in 1980 for the murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl.”
Yonke also wrote that Robinson was not interviewed again about Sister Margaret Ann’s murder until the Lucas County cold case team interrogated him in 2004.
In the same letter, Yonke argued the interruption reflected a broader culture inside Toledo police at the time. He cited former officers who said police were expected to protect the Catholic Church and not arrest priests.
Michael Sallah, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter, also provided an article he and Mitch Weiss wrote about decades of church cover-ups involving priests.
The article, published in The IRE Journal, described prior reporting that found Toledo police and other law enforcement officials helped conceal or minimize allegations against priests, including sex abuse allegations.
Vercellotti said she is not sure whether she will be allowed to speak before the board Thursday. She said she is sending the material to Julie Gibbons, clerk of council, to ensure board members see it before voting. There is also additional material she has compiled.
“I want the review board to focus on what happened when the doors opened. You can argue he was brought in to help, but the case was closed when the doors opened. They had recovered the murder weapon the night before and they had already interrogated him and they had the evidence and ultimately he was convicted in 2006,” she said. “There’s a very clear roadmap for righting this wrong. When you know better, do better.”
The board only makes recommendations. If it recommends the sign be removed, Toledo City Council will have the final say.
Vercellotti and Sister Margaret Ann’s nephew, Lew Pahl, each spoke to the board last month. The sign was dedicated on the anniversary of Sister Margaret Ann’s murder in 2002. They have been fighting for more than 20 years to have it removed.
“The Pahl family has been nothing but gracious and operated with civility and walked down every rabbit hole necessary – both in the public and private sector – trying to get that sign down, but to no avail,” Vercellotti said. “It’s offensive to crime victims because who we honor matters. It emboldens wrong behavior and it normalizes horrific behavior and we’re talking about the coverup of a murder, and it doesn’t get much worse than that.”
11 Investigates sent the Diocese of Toledo a copy of Ross’ letter and asked whether the Diocese disputes Ross’ account, whether it disputes the $10,000 payment allegation and whether it believes the Schmit sign should remain.
As of Monday afternoon, the Diocese had not responded.
Please see original article for letters.