CINCINNATI — Former priest and convicted rapist Geoff Drew is set to live in an Over-the-Rhine halfway house when he is released from prison Aug. 17, after his elderly mother refused to allow him to live in her West Side home.
Prison officials notified the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office that Drew had registered at Volunteers of America, a re-entry program on W. McMicken Avenue that currently houses 35 registered sex offenders, according to the Ohio sex offender locator website.
The halfway house is located two blocks from a playground and public pool, across the street from a church and near a Metro bus stop.
WATCH: What we know about Geoff Drew's release from prison
“The safety of children and families must come first,” said Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich. “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 pleaded guilty to repeatedly raping an altar boy when he was 9 and 10 years old in the late 1980s and early 1990s at St. Jude in Bridgetown, where Drew was a music director.
In 2021, Judge Leslie Ghiz sentenced him to seven years in prison, which was set by the plea deal, but added that she would have gladly sent him to prison for life.
It was one of the most highly publicized and controversial crimes in recent memory. It led to the resignation of an auxiliary bishop, the demand for a Vatican investigation by 1,500 local Catholics, and questions about how the Archdiocese of Cincinnati handled complaints that spanned three decades, across three different counties where Drew worked in churches and schools first as a music or band director, and later as a priest.
A WCPO investigation revealed that priests, parents and church and school officials knew about Drew’s inappropriate behavior with boys for decades, ranging from lingering hugs and shoulder massages to vacations and camping trips where alcohol was served and a boy blacked out from drinking too much.
Police identified a second alleged victim, but prosecutors said they could not file charges in that case because the statute of limitations had expired.
Drew had wanted to live with his elderly mother in her West Side home on a dead-end street filled with children. An elementary school bus stop is right in front of his mother’s house.
But Drew’s family members, including his mother, issued a statement to the I-Team in April addressing the concerns of friends, neighbors and West Side residents: “Geoff Drew will not be living at his mother’s residence upon his release from prison or any time after that.”
Now Drew is set to live in a two-story halfway house. It holds an average of 128 men and women, and has at least three staff members on duty 24 hours a day with video surveillance in group rooms, classrooms, day rooms, the recreation yard, smoke pits, hallways and kitchen areas, according to the VOA’s most recent audit, which is listed on its website.
Drew will be at the VOA until he can find another suitable place to reside. If Drew wants to move, he must first seek approval through the adult parole office.
He is currently classified at the highest sexual offender level. Once he is released from the Noble Correctional Institution, a medium-security prison for men in Caldwell, Noble County, Ohio, he must register his new home address with the sheriff’s office every 90 days for the rest of his life.
Deputies would then distribute postcards containing his mug shot and criminal history to neighbors, nearby schools and child care centers.
Ohio law forbids Tier 3 sex offenders like Drew from living within 1,000 feet of any school, preschool or day care. It also bans them from volunteer work where they would have extensive contact with children.
“People need to be very, very worried about the safety of their children,” Pillich said in an April interview. “I want to make sure that everybody knows that this guy has committed monstrous acts repeatedly with 10-year-old children, 10-year-old boys. Grooming them, attempting to groom them and sometimes being successful.”
Stacy Hudepohl, who lives on the same street as Drew’s mother, felt relieved after she learned that he would not be moving there. But she still worried that Drew could meet unsupervised children at parks, playgrounds, pools and recreation centers.
“Just because it’s not in my neighborhood doesn’t mean he’s not going to move to your neighborhood. It doesn’t solve the problem at all,” Hudepohl said in an April interview. “Should we post his picture everywhere? Because he really is going to be a danger to kids when is free in August.”
Drew has deep ties to the West Side, where many of his family members live and where he was pastor at St. Ignatius of Loyola in Green Township.
The 64-year-old owned a condominium in Green Township for 24 years, but he sold it in March 2020, seven months after his arrest, according to county auditor records.
Then-Archbishop Dennis Schnurr placed Drew on an administrative leave of absence before his 2019 arrest, following accusations of inappropriate behavior with a student.
Drew’s laicization was finalized in November 2023, and his name was subsequently placed on the list of clerics with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse on the archdiocese website, according to an Archdiocese of Cincinnati spokesperson.
He may no longer present himself as a priest. Additionally, he will not be permitted to volunteer in any capacity at any parish, school or ministry under the jurisdiction of the archdiocese, according to a spokesperson.
