Let's see... first a sexual assault on a student (daughter of family friends, no less). Then kiddie porno with trips to Asia for sessions with little boys. Now this (innocent until proven guilty, of course). The anointed are sliding down the slippery slope of the moral high ground. Al Krigman
Register your opposition to the NID via the Internet to Councilwoman Blackwell -- With some background: _www.iconworldwide.com/speakup_ (http://www.iconworldwide.com/speakup) Go directly to the form: _http://www.iconworldwide.com/speakup/nonid-01.html_ (http://www.iconworldwide.com/speakup/nonid-01.html) ======================= Posted on Mon, Jan. 08, 2007 (http://www.reprintbuyer.com/mags/knightridder/reprints.html) Penn professor charged in wife’s death By Nancy Phillips INQUIRER STAFF WRITER AP Photo Rafael Robb is escorted into Montgomery County District Court in King of Prussia. University of Pennsylvania economics professor Rafael Robb has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of his wife, Ellen. Robb, 56, a bespectacled man with closely cropped salt-and-pepper hair, looked a bit bewildered as he entered the courtroom for his arraignment wearing jeans, sneakers and a blue wool jacket and carrying a black wool cap. His feet were in shackles and his hands cuffed in front of him and strapped to a leather belt around his waist. District Justice William Maruszczak asked him to spell his name, and Robb answered in accented English that hinted of his native language of Hebrew. He sat quietly and betrayed no emotion as the judge read aloud the charges against him. At the close of the brief proceeding, he stood and asked his lawyer, "Where am I going now?" as he was led to Montgomery County prison, where he will be held without bail. A preliminary hearing will be held later this month. Ellen Robb, 49, was bludgeoned beyond recognition in the kitchen of her home. Veteran detectives thought she had been shot until an autopsy proved otherwise. She appeared to have been wrapping Christmas presents when she was attacked. Rafael Robb is an expert in "game theory," generally described as a method of studying situations in which players choose various tactics in an effort to maximize outcomes. He is a tenured professor at Penn's School of Arts and Sciences. In an affidavit of probable cause for Robb's arrest, released today by Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor, a friend of Ellen Robb's told police that when she invited Robb to a birthday party in October, Robb could not go because she had a black eye. According to the friend, she said that "her husband hit her and that he treated her terribly." The Robbs, long estranged but still living in the same house, were on the verge of separating. Ellen Robb had retained a divorce lawyer and was planning to move into a $1,500-a-month apartment by New Year's Day. According to a real estate agent who had met with her, Ellen Robb said she expected to receive $4,000 in monthly support from her husband. The affidavit, quoting two mental-health experts, called the killing an attack by someone with "a need to depersonalize Ms. Robb such that she is hardly recognizable as a human being." Rafael Robb's explanation was that his wife had likely been killed by a burglar who broke through the glass of a rear door. Nothing appeared to have been stolen from the house, the affidavit said. The breaking of a window in the back door "appears staged," the affidavit says, because no one had walked on the shattered glass on the floor. The affidavit also questioned whether a burglar would have taken time to restrain the family's dog, which was found closed in a bedroom. Investigation of Rafael Robb's statements to detectives also aroused suspicion, the affidavit said. He claimed to have spent up to 40 minutes buying fruit at a market in Philadelphia on his way to work that morning. A cashier did identify him as a regular customer, but said he had not been there the day of the murder. Robb said that when he came home to find his wife's body, he did not immediately call 911, the affidavit said. Instead, he said he "touched her face," put his laptop computer and briefcase in his upstairs bedroom, checked on the dog barking in his daughter's bedroom, and, after returning downstairs in search of a phone, found the broken window in the door. "He told the police dispatcher that he believed she was dead because her head was cracked," Castor said. "That is very significant to me," given the initial impression of investigators that she had been shot. Last week, the university said another instructor would take over the graduate seminar he was scheduled to teach starting this semester. Al Krigman
