BELLEFONTE \u2014 A former Penn State student testified Wednesday that he hid a safe containing suspected drug evidence in Centre County woods after a friend accused of helping run a cocaine ring was arrested \u2014 and he later retrieved the safe with the friend\u2019s father, who also is charged in the case.<\/p>\n
Ryan Matson, a former Penn State student and member of Delta Upsilon, took the stand during a preliminary hearing and testified that he knew his fraternity brother Thomas Robinson, 23, of Churchill, was selling cocaine.<\/p>\n
Robinson is one of 14 people charged in a suspected cocaine ring at the university. Matson had not been charged as of Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Robinson\u2019s father, Paul Robinson, 59, of Churchill, is the only non-student facing criminal charges in connection with the scandal. A managing attorney at Meyer, Darragh, Buckler, Bebenek & Eck in Pittsburgh, he is charged with felony tampering and hindering apprehension for trying to conceal evidence.<\/p>\n
After the hearing, Centre County Common Pleas President Judge Jonathan Grine ruled there was enough evidence against Paul Robinson to send his case to trial.<\/p>\n
Matson testified that he hid the safe belonging to the younger Robinson in the woods after Robinson\u2019s arrest in December 2024.<\/p>\n
Matson said he kept the safe, which allegedly contained cocaine, at his apartment down the street from the fraternity house as a favor to Thomas Robinson.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wanted to store it somewhere more secure,\u201d Matson said.<\/p>\n
Matson testified that he stored the safe under his bedroom desk. Robinson never gave Matson the key or combination, and Matson was never able to access the safe himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt remained there the entire semester until we got busted,\u201d Matson testified.<\/p>\n
Then, Matson said, he and another student took the safe and drove 30 to 35 minutes until they reached an area off East Mountain Road.<\/p>\n
Matson said he took the safe from a duffel bag, ran into the woods and hid it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI ran down to the woods and put the safe next to a tree and covered it with leaves and dirt and sticks,\u201d Matson testified.<\/p>\n
Two days after Thomas Robinson posted bail, his father drove to the fraternity house, Matson said. Later, Paul Robinson drove with Matson to find the safe, while the younger Robinson was packing at the frat house, Matson testified.<\/p>\n
After Matson retrieved the safe from the woods, Paul Robinson helped load it into the trunk of his car and covered it with a blanket, Matson testified.<\/p>\n
Paul Robinson later sent Matson a text message thanking him for being there for his son, Matson testified.<\/p>\n
\u201cRyan, you are a great friend and person. Thank you for being there for Tom. I will remember it always. If you ever need anything \u2026 we love you, brother,\u201d Paul Robinson wrote, according to Matson\u2019s testimony.<\/p>\n
During cross-examination by Robinson\u2019s attorney, Michael DeRiso, Matson said the last time he had seen the contents of the safe was in September 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t see him go into the safe,\u201d Matson said in response to DeRiso\u2019s questioning about Thomas Robinson.<\/p>\n
DeRiso has maintained Paul Robinson did not know what was inside the safe. He pointed out that texts between Paul Robinson and Matson do not mention money or drugs.<\/p>\n
Matson testified that Paul Robinson offered him \u201cno incentives\u201d related to the safe.<\/p>\n
However, Matson said the elder Robinson made a request.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Paul Robinson) asked me not to tell anyone about it,\u201d Matson testified, saying the conversation took place verbally on the day they went to the woods.<\/p>\n
Senior state Deputy Attorney General Megan McGoron said Wednesday that Thomas Robinson testified in the grand jury investigation that he had placed about 100 grams of cocaine and between $5,000 and $10,000 in the safe at the beginning of that fall semester before his arrest.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Matson is) immediately panicking because there\u2019s evidence of a crime within the safe,\u201d McGoron said of Matson\u2019s decision to hide the safe after Thomas Robinson was arrested.<\/p>\n
After the hearing, DeRiso continued to defend the elder Robinson.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no evidence of what was in the safe,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re all speculating here that there\u2019s this massive amount of cocaine in this safe with all this money and, unless I missed something in that hearing, nothing was produced to suggest that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BELLEFONTE \u2014 A former Penn State student testified Wednesday that he hid a safe containing suspected drug evidence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-277718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}