WOMAN: ROHRER STRUCK SON, THREATENED HER

Author: Jane M. Von Bergen, Inquirer Staff Writer

Pamela Brill testified yesterday that Mimi Rohrer had threatened to sue her if she and other potential witnesses in the investigation into the death of Rohrer's son did not get their stories straight.

During Rohrer's murder trial in Camden, Brill, a relative by marriage of Rohrer's, testified that the defendant had told her, "You all better have your stories straight, because I have lawyers and I'll sue you for slander and libel."

Rohrer, 43, is accused of killing her son, Billy, 2 1/2, through a pattern of child abuse. He died on May 28, 1975. He and another child, Laura, now 12, had been adopted from El Salvador three months earlier.

Brill said she had not told New Jersey law enforcement officials investigating Billy's death about the time, two months before the boy died, that she had seen Rohrer hit him hard enough to raise a bump on his forehead. She said yesterday that she had withheld the information because "I didn't want to hurt Mrs. Rohrer."

Brill said Rohrer was provoked to hit the boy because he had smiled at another man that day but had been reluctant to be affectionate toward his father.

"It was a family matter," she said. "I was also her friend."

Brill, 36, of Strafford, also said Rohrer had told her repeatedly that she never hit Billy hard except for the time Brill witnessed the incident.

Brill's husband is a nephew of Rohrer's husband, William G. Rohrer, a prominent South Jersey Republican politician, longtime mayor of Haddon Township and founder of the First Peoples Bank of New Jersey.

In May 1982, seven years after the boy died, Brill was doing some filing work for William Rohrer at the Rohrer home when Mimi Rohrer told her that the state was opening an investigation into the child's death, Brill testified.

"She told me I did not have to speak to anybody or to answer any questions," Brill said. "I should be righteously indignant and say she was a good mother.

"If they come to see me, I have to tell the truth," Brill said she replied. "I can't go up before a grand jury and not tell the truth. I'm sure the other people told the truth."

Brill testified that Rohrer's response was: "Do you think everyone up there is telling the truth? Do you think Cora Thomas is up there telling the truth that Billy was the baddest kid she ever saw and she showed me how to hit him without leaving marks?"

Thomas, Brill said, cleaned the Rohrers' house. She has been listed as a potential witness in the trial.

On Aug. 16, 1982, when investigators from the state attorney general's office interviewed Brill, she said, she did not tell them about the time she had seen Mimi Rohrer hit Billy because she was not asked whether she had seen Rohrer strike him. She answered all questions, she testified, but did not volunteer information.

On Aug. 19, 1982, when she testified to the grand jury that later indicted Rohrer on the murder charge, she did describe the incident. She also described it in court yesterday.

"She walked across the room, and she swung her arm back and hit Billy on the forehead and knocked him off" a riding toy, Brill said, her voice shaking as she recalled the March 1975 incident.

Brill, who has three children, testified that later that same day she had told Rohrer: "It's hard to be a mother. I told her it's a very frustrating job, but no matter what happens, you can't strike a child like that. Her overall actions were of remorse. I thought she was upset because she lost control and struck the child."

Brill glanced nervously at Rohrer as she spoke yesterday, and Rohrer frequently stared back.

Also during the trial yesterday, tension persisted between Rohrer and her attorney, Raymond M. Brown of Newark, whom Rohrer has tried to have dismissed
from the case. At one point early in the day, Rohrer turned to Brown and said loudly: "I'm sure you're doing the best you can for Bill Rohrer (her husband) and yourself."

On Oct. 5, Rohrer asked Camden County Superior Court Judge David G. Eynon to allow her to substitute counsel, saying that Brown was abusive and involved in a conspiracy to keep her husband from any involvement in the trial. Eynon denied the motion.