Tier 3 sex offenders like Geoff Drew can’t live within 1,000 feet of schools or day cares, but his mother’s home appears to be a legal fit when he gets out of prison Aug. 17

Former priest and confessed rapist Geoff Drew wants to return to the West Side to live with his elderly mother once he’s released from prison on Aug. 17.

Ohio prison officials notified Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich of Drew’s request to live with his mother. A spokesperson said the address has not yet received final approval, which generally happens closer to an inmate’s release date.

“He’s going to be living with his mom, here in our county, within easy walking distance of multiple schools, including an elementary school,” Pillich said. “People need to be very, very worried about the safety of their children.”

Drew pleaded guilty in 2021 to repeatedly raping Paul Neyer when he was 9 and 10 years old. It happened in the late 1980s and early 1990s when Neyer was a student and altar boy at St. Jude in Bridgetown, where Drew was a music director.

Watch: What we know about Geoff Drew’s upcoming release (Please see the original article for this story.)

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.

“I want to make sure that everybody knows that this guy has committed monstrous acts,” Pillich said. “I have no reason to think he has changed his ways.”

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 victim, but prosecutors said they could not file charges in that case because the statute of limitations had expired.

Many other men spoke to police as they were investigating Drew in 2019, describing inappropriate and grooming behavior that continued for decades.

“If you have the strength, and not everybody does, please come forward,” Pillich said, encouraging any other victims to contact law enforcement. “It takes a lot of courage to come forward, especially if you were a child.”

Drew 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 childcare centers.

Drew tried to reduce his sex offender status to make it harder for the public to know where he was living.

But a judge denied his motion for reclassification in March 2025.

Tier 3 offenders, such as Drew, cannot establish a residence within 1,000 feet of any school, preschool or day care facility.

The WCPO 9 I-Team reviewed a map of Drew’s mother’s neighborhood. It appears to be a legally acceptable place for him to live and is just over a mile from three schools.

“The West Side of our city is like its own small town,” said Rebecca Surendorff, co-founder of Ohioans for Child Protection. “I know of some children who have gone to St. Ignatius who have indicated they have some anxiety over his release and what they would do if they were to encounter him.”

Surendorff has many ties to Drew. She was a classmate of Drew’s victim, Paul Neyer, at St. Jude’s in the late 1980s. When Drew later became a priest, he baptized her daughter in 2004. Years later, he became pastor of her children’s school, St. Ignatius of Loyola in Green Township, which at the time was Ohio’s largest Catholic grade school.

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 of Cincinnati, according to spokesperson Mike Schafer.

A 2023 Ohio law makes it illegal for sex offenders to volunteer in positions that would allow them to have extensive contact with children.

But Surendorff worries that the law is vague enough to allow Drew to work and volunteer in places where he may see children again, theoretically, even as a music director.

Surendorff believes that Drew’s case highlights the need for statute of limitations reform in Ohio.

Ohio ranks among the worst states when it comes to statute of limitations reform, according to Child USA, which is a national think tank that promotes the elimination of time limits on civil and criminal cases of child sex abuse and the revival of claims that expired under current law.

“The Ohio legislature is very favorable to insurance companies, corporations, and the Catholic Church,” said Konrad Kircher, an attorney who has represented hundreds of victims of child sexual abuse, in a 2024 interview with the I-Team. “Those entities have strong lobbying arms in Ohio.”

In the past decade, public pressure has prompted lawmakers in many other states to reform their statute of limitations to allow more sexual abuse victims to sue and predators to be prosecuted.

But Ohio laws are still unchanged for child victims: criminal charges for rape and sexual battery can be filed until victims are 43, while civil claims are permitted until they turn 30.

That prohibited prosecutors from filing charges when a second victim of Drew came forward, because he was age 45.

“Our statute of limitations, as we can see in the Drew case, directly impacts public safety risk,” Surendorff said. “Sadly, a lot of this is going to have to be advocated for at our statehouse.”

Pillich agreed, saying a conviction from a second victim would undoubtedly have resulted in a prison term that was longer than seven years.

“If my office had been able to prosecute that second victim, we would ask for the maximum possible,” Pillich said. “There’s absolutely no leniency for people who hurt children.”

Drew declined an interview.

The I-Team discovered new details about Drew’s second victim in 2024 while reviewing police investigative files and audio recordings of their interviews.

The following excerpt is from a 2024 I-Team investigation into Drew:

A 45-year-old man was sitting at a bar after work on Aug. 19, 2019, when he saw a story about Drew’s arrest on television.

“I was like, oh my God, nine counts … and I damn near cried right there,” the man told police.

He said his own experience with Drew, “was never going to come out,” until he saw that story. He asked his girlfriend to pick him up from the bar, and in tears, told her about his abuse for the first time, according to his police interview.

A day later, on Aug. 20, 2019, he called the Hamilton County prosecutor’s office and left a voicemail message that the “same stuff” that happened to Neyer had happened to him.

(Cincinnati police Detective. Dana) Jones and Green Township Police Detective James Conforti picked up the man, who is not identified in police records, from his home on Aug. 31, because he needed a ride and had missed a scheduled interview a few days prior.

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