Profile Facts
- Name
- Robert R. Gerl
- Role
- Priest
- Diocese
- Diocese of Lansing
- Ordained
- 1979
- Status
- Accused
- Records
- Diocesan and public records
If you were harmed by Father Robert R. Gerl or another member of the Catholic clergy, you deserve a legal team that understands both the trauma and the law. As clergy sexual abuse lawyers, White Law PLLC has spent years standing with Michigan residents who were harmed by priests, brothers, and deacons.
Below you will find the reported history of Father Robert R. Gerl, drawn from public records and investigative reporting. If you recognize his name, confidential help is available.
Sexual Abuse in the Diocese of Lansing
Michigan’s Catholic Church is organized into seven dioceses: Archdiocese of Detroit, Diocese of Saginaw, Diocese of Kalamazoo, Diocese of Grand Rapids, Diocese of Marquette, and Diocese of Gaylord, and the Diocese of Lansing. When the Michigan Attorney General launched a statewide investigation into clergy abuse in 2018, investigators examined files from every one of them. The public record on Father Robert R. Gerl comes from the Diocese of Lansing, one of the dioceses whose files were reviewed.
Those diocesan reports named dozens of accused clergy and revealed patterns of reassignment and secrecy. Speaking with a Michigan clergy sexual abuse lawyer is the fastest way to learn what the investigation uncovered about Father Robert R. Gerl, your parish, or your school.
The Allegations Against Father Robert R. Gerl
Where He Served
Published records indicate that Robert R. Gerl began as a seminarian in Milwaukee, where he was arrested in 1977 for solicitation in a public park and pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. When the Milwaukee archdiocese declined to ordain him, he was accepted by the Diocese of Lansing, which ordained him in 1979. He later served at St. Gerard Parish in Lansing, was sent to the House of Affirmation in Massachusetts for treatment, and was released to the Diocese of Kalamazoo, where he served as chaplain to the Sisters of St. Joseph in Nazareth and held a position at Nazareth College. After that college closed in 1991, he transferred to St. Catharine College in Kentucky, then returned to Michigan in 1997 to St. Thomas More Student Parish in Kalamazoo while working part-time at St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Rapids. He retired in 2016.
What Survivors Reported
In 2020, a man reported to the Diocese that Gerl sexually abused him at age 14 in 1985 at St. Gerard Parish in Lansing. The man said that, with his mother’s permission, he spent a night in the rectory at Gerl’s invitation; that Gerl gave him something to drink after which he felt paralyzed; and that he remembered being naked in a bathtub with Gerl and another man, then waking naked the next morning. He said Gerl told him not to tell his mother. Gerl was arrested again in 1985 for solicitation at a highway rest stop and pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct.
Records further indicate that Gerl was investigated in 1995 for sexual harassment and intimidation at St. Catharine College and resigned under an agreement that the college would drop its investigation. In 2002, an accuser said of Gerl’s time at St. Thomas More that he “used lies, and false information to manipulate and abuse.” His faculties in the Lansing diocese were removed in October 2018 over a credible allegation of sexual assault of an adult male decades earlier. Gerl had served on the Diocesan Tribunal since 2014. Because he is reported to be living, criminal options may still exist, and civil options apply regardless.
Criminal vs. Civil Sexual Abuse Cases
Criminal prosecution punishes the offender; civil litigation compensates the victim. When prosecutors charge a priest like Father Robert R. Gerl, the goal is conviction and sentencing. When a survivor sues, the goal is accountability and the resources needed to heal.
Because the systems are separate, the outcome of one does not control the other. Survivors in Michigan often have viable civil claims connected to accused clergy such as Father Robert R. Gerl even where no criminal case was ever brought.
Statute of Limitations on Clergy Sexual Abuse Cases in Michigan
Michigan law sets different clocks for different cases. Civil claims for clergy sexual abuse must generally be filed within ten years or before the survivor turns 28 under §600.5805, while first-degree criminal sexual conduct charges carry no statute of limitations at all, a rule that applies to reports involving Father Robert R. Gerl as well.
Delayed disclosure is the norm, not the exception, trauma and memory loss keep many survivors from speaking up until well into adulthood. An experienced attorney can determine whether an exception or tolling rule keeps a claim involving Father Robert R. Gerl alive.
View All Accused Clergy in Michigan
Pursue Justice With Help From White Law PLLC
Accountability does not stop with the individual cleric. Michigan law allows survivors to pursue the abuser’s estate as well as the institutions that employed him, where leaders were aware of the risk, or should have been, yet failed to stop the abuse, concealed it, or skipped basic screening and training of clergy such as Father Robert R. Gerl.
Damages in a case involving Father Robert R. Gerl can cover medical and therapy costs, pain and suffering, and lasting emotional distress. Contact White Law PLLC at (517) 316-1195.
Profiles summarize published records and allegations. Inclusion does not constitute a legal finding.