The civil suit against Father Gerald Robinson has been dismissed by Judge Ruth Ann Franks of Lucas Common Pleas Court, not on the merits of the case but because of statutes of limitations.
The plaintiff, whose suit claimed that the priest sexually abused and tortured her in satanic rituals when she was a child, plans to appeal, according to her attorney Mark Davis.
This is separate from the criminal case against Robinson in which he was convicted of murdering Sister Margaret Ann Pahl.
The civil suit was filed anonymously by "Survivor Doe" and her husband, "Spouse Doe." She said she had been abused as a child many times but did not know the identities of her perpetrators until she saw TV coverage of Robinson's arrest. Then she knew who had abused her, and began to pursue the lawsuit.
This is the key issue: when does the statute of limitation begin ticking? She and her attorney claim it did not start until she was able to identify her abuser, which was in April, 2004. The diocese and Robinson's attorneys claim the statute of limitations expired two years after she reached the age of majority, which is the old standard (it has since been extended).
This is a crucial issue and one that might go to the state supreme court. Extending the statutes was a major debate last year in the state legislature and Ohio's bishops lobbied hard against some proposals that would have expanded the laws to allow victims more time to file lawsuits.
After covering these kinds of cases for five years now, I have learned that child abuse victims generally are not mentally and emotionally strong enough to report the abuse and/or confront their perpetrators for many years, most often for decades.
Some victims have suppressed memories and don't even know about the abuse until something triggers the memories to the surface.
The statutes of limitations laws are difficult to set, there are so many factors and variables involved. We'll just have to wait and see how the Survivor Doe suit plays out. In the meantime, Robinson's appeal on the criminal conviction is still creeping along.