Woman's sex allegations led to reopening of murder case

A priest was to be arraigned today in the 1980 slaying of a nun.
TOLEDO (AP) -- A woman's allegations that Roman Catholic priests sexually abused her during bizarre rituals led police to re-examine the 1980 killing of a nun and charge one of the priests with murder.
The woman's allegations were not substantiated but one priest she mentioned was the Rev. Gerald Robinson -- a suspect in the nun's killing years ago.
Father Robinson, 66, was charged Friday with killing Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, who was strangled and stabbed about 30 times April 5, 1980. Her body was found in a hospital chapel, surrounded by lighted candles with her arms folded across her chest.
They had worked together for several years at Mercy Hospital. Father Robinson, the hospital's chaplain, performed the funeral for Sister Pahl, 71.
He was to be arraigned this morning in Toledo Municipal Court.
Before his arrest, he was performing pastoral care at nursing homes and hospitals in the Toledo area, the Toledo diocese said.
On Saturday, Father Robinson's attorney, John Thebes, questioned the strength of the new evidence in the murder case.
"There's a reason these cases are cold and sit for 24 years, because the evidence is not good to begin with," he told The Blade.
Killing part of 'ceremony'
Police detective Steve Forrester and Tom Ross, an investigator with the Lucas County Prosecutor's office, told the newspaper that the nun's killing was part of a "ceremony" in the chapel. They would not elaborate.
In December, authorities re-examined old evidence and concluded that the murder weapon, which they did not identify, was "in the control of the suspect." They used "blood transfer patterns," a rarely used technology that analyzes the patterns made when an item is laid down. DNA evidence was not a factor, Forrester said.
A message seeking additional comment was left with Ross on Sunday.
The woman whose allegations led to the reopening of the case testified before the Diocesan Review Board on June 11 and wrote a detailed statement alleging years of abuse by Toledo diocesan and religious-order priests during her childhood.
"She did mention Father Robinson and that he was involved in the ritualistic abuse of her," said Claudia Vercelloti, a director of the Toledo office for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and has been in contact with the woman.
Described ritual
The woman, now in her 40s, described satanic ceremonies in which priests placed her in a coffin filled with cockroaches, forced her to ingest what she believed to be a human eyeball and penetrated her with a snake "to consecrate these orifices to Satan." She also alleged that the group of clerics killed an infant and a 3-year-old child, performed an abortion on her and mutilated dogs during the rituals, according to a copy of her statement.
Vercelloti said Sunday that the woman did not know that Father Robinson had been a suspect in Sister Pahl's killing.
"I don't know if she knew what she was setting in motion," she said.
The diocese decided against turning over the allegations to authorities because they had been made earlier and investigated, said Sally Oberski, a diocese spokeswoman.
"They were found to be noncredible," she said Sunday. The allegations were against several priests and Father Robinson's "name was mentioned among several others."
Vercelloti said the diocese should have given the information to police and prosecutors because Father Robinson had been a suspect in the nun's death.
"They should have turned it over whether they found it credible or not," Vercelloti said.
Calls to the prosecutor's office and home were not answered Sunday.