Former Cincinnati priest convicted of raping altar boy released from prison

Video above is from previous coverage

CINCINNATI (WXIX) - Former Archdiocese of Cincinnati priest and convicted child rapist Geoff Drew is out of prison and returning to Cincinnati.

He was released between 8:30 a.m. and 8:45 a.m. Monday, according to a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

The agency told the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office Saturday that Drew registered his address upon release as the Volunteers of America halfway house on West McMicken Avenue in Over-the-Rhine, Prosecutor Connie Pillich said.

Drew, 64, was a priest for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati when he was convicted in December 2021 of repeatedly raping a boy who served as an altar boy at the time between the ages of 8 and 10 in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

He pleaded guilty to nine counts of rape in a plea deal approved by the victim.

Drew will be watched, Pillich vows

At the time of his 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.

The archdiocese has officially laicized (defrocked) him.

That means he is permanently stripped of his clerical status and barred from presenting himself as a priest or working in Catholic institutions.

Drew is out of prison so soon due to credit for time served at the county jail while awaiting trial, which was just over two years (27 months).

He is on post-release supervision for five years and is required to register as a Tier III sex offender for the rest of his life, ORDC’s spokeswoman said.

Drew recently tried to hide his sex offender status upon release.

He asked 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.

Pillich immediately opposed it, and a judge rejected Drew’s motion.

“The safety of children and families must come first,” Pillich said Monday.

“This convicted sex offender will be released since he served his maximum sentence, but he will still be supervised by the Department of Corrections for the next five years and will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

“He may not be behind bars, but he will still be watched.”

Drew case prompted Ohio grooming law

Before Drew was arrested, he was suspected of sexually grooming young boys for years in Hamilton, Butler and Montgomery counties, court and police records show.

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.

There is now because of this case.

Gov. Mike DeWine signed House Bill 322 into law on Jan. 8 2025. It went into effect three months later.

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.”

Six years ago, FOX19 NOW reported court records filed by Hamilton County prosecutors revealed there were several complaints and allegations about Drew’s behavior for years before he was arrested.

A second alleged victim of Drew was unable to pursue criminal charges because Ohio’s statute of limitations had already expired, prosecutors have said.

Prosecutors planned to use all this as evidence during his trial, court records show.

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.

Victim turned advocate

The victim who was connected to Drew’s conviction confronted him in court the day of his sentencing.

“The truth is no amount of time will make up for the child that you murdered. Any chance of having intimacy, any chance to actually live, love, find joy, was stolen,” he told Drew.

“You made me unusable, undesirable, dirty and broken, but I trust in God that this is bigger than you. This is bigger than me. And this is in his authority to have vengeance. And one day you will have to stand in front of him.

“I forgive you, but nobody will ever be able to f------ forget.”

A few months later, in April 2022, the victim came forward publicly for the first time to 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 and traveled to Columbus to lobby for better laws.

Neyer says he felt Drew should have received more prison time than the seven years that were part of the deal, but he exchanged that for the achievement of Drew admitting to raping him nine times.

Ohio ‘Hidden Predator Bills’

Drew’s release sparked an immediate push by child protection advocates to overhaul Ohio’s statute of limitations laws.

Victims of childhood sexual abuse often wait decades to disclose or report their abuse, according to Child safety organization Enough Abuse.

Ohio’s civil statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse is capped at age 30, while the criminal statute of limitations is capped at age 43—with a five-year extension if DNA evidence is uncovered within 25 years of the assault.

“Victims need access to courts in the name of justice and public safety,” said Rebecca Surendorff, co-founder of Ohioans for Child Protection, in a statement.

“When Ohio laws arbitrarily close those court doors, it leaves predators hidden in our communities.”

Advocates argue that these limits are dangerously out of step with most of the country.

Enough Abuse reports that 44 states and six U.S. territories have eliminated criminal statutes of limitation for childhood sexual assault. Additionally, 20 states have eliminated civil statutes of limitation, and 31 states have enacted “lookback windows” allowing victims with expired civil claims a temporary period to seek justice in court.

Ohioans for Child Protection is urging Ohio lawmakers to join those states by passing “Hidden Predator” legislation to fully reform the state’s statutes of limitation.

“States that have had these ‘Hidden Predator Bills’ not only allow victims to seek justice, but they also recognize the public safety risk of hidden predators in their community,” said Teresa Dinwiddie-Herrmann, co-founder of Ohioans for Child Protection.

“It is time for Ohio to protect kids and believe victims.”

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