Ohio’s child grooming law goes into effect Wednesday

CINCINNATI (WXIX) - Grooming children for sexual abuse is now illegal in Ohio.

Gov. Mike DeWine signed House Bill 322 into law on Jan. 8. It goes into effect Wednesday.

It is now a crime for someone eighteen or older “to engage in a pattern of conduct with a minor who is less than sixteen years of age and who is four or more years younger than the person with the purpose to entice, coerce, or solicit the minor to engage in sexual activity.”

Ohio joins other states, such as Vermont and Illinois, to have put similar legislation in place.

The Ohio Prosecutor’s Association supported House Bill 322 and it was co-sponsored by two local Republican state representatives, motivated by the case of Geoff Drew.

Drew was a priest for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati when he was convicted in December 2021 of repeatedly raping a small boy between the ages of 8 and 10 in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

At the time of the crimes, Drew was the music minister at St. Jude School in Green Township, where the victim attended school.

Drew did not become a priest until 2004 and also taught at Elder High School in West Price Hill.

Now 63 and no longer a priest, Drew was suspected of sexually grooming young boys for years in Hamilton, Butler and Montgomery counties, court and police records show, before he pleaded guilty to nine counts of rape.

Prosecutors, however, couldn’t charge him until his rape victim came forward in the summer of 2019 because grooming wasn’t a criminal offense in Ohio.

Court records show there were several complaints and allegations about Drew’s behavior for years, information Hamilton County prosecutors planned to expose in detail during his trial.

If Drew’s case had not ended in the plea, archdiocese officials might have been compelled to testify under oath about what they knew about him and when.

There were other alleged victims, including another student at St. Jude, who was 12 or younger when Drew began grooming and then sexually assaulting between 1985 and 1987, prosecutors wrote in court records filed in 2020.

Drew, however, was not charged in connection with those allegations due to the statute of limitations.

Drew’s victim connected to his conviction publicly came forward in a 2022 interview with FOX19 NOW to share his story of pain, recovery and hope.

Paul Neyer is a married father now with four children.

He said he was trying to use his experience to help other child sex abuse victims.

Neyer traveled to Columbus in May 2022 and stood before a Senate committee, urging them to reform the state’s child sex abuse laws to extend the statute of limitation for victims to seek the justice he said they deserve.

“History remembers three kinds of people,” he told lawmakers on May 31, 2022.

“Those who endure evil, those who perpetrate or enable evil, and those who stand up to and stop it. I’ve endured it, now I’m standing up to it. With the power you hold, you now sit in a position to either help stop it… or to enable it.”

Other supporters of House Bill 322, concerned parents and Ohioans for Child Protection have worked with lawmakers and urged them to recognize child sexual abuse as an urgent public safety issue.

One in 4 girls and one in 13 boys will experience sexual assault before the age of 18, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“New research tells us that nearly every instance of child sexual abuse had a predator that used grooming behaviors to gain the trust of the child,” said Rebecca Surendorff of Cincinnati, co-founder of Ohioans for Child Protection.

“While this new law is a big step in furthering child protection in Ohio, there is more work to be done. Ohio is still sadly one of just a few states left that have not reformed our Statute of Limitation on child rape.

Drew, meanwhile, will be released from prison on Aug. 17, 2026, due to credit for time served at the county jail while awaiting trial, 27 months, state records show.

Once he’s out, he will be required to register as a Tier III sex offender for the rest of his life.

Drew recently tried to reclassify his sex offender status to a lower tier, which would eliminate notification to neighbors, schools and childcare centers within 1,000 feet of where he lives when he is released, court records show.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich opposed it and Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Leslie Ghiz rejected his motion on March 26.

“The court finds the motion not well-taken and hereby overrules it,” her decision states.

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