CINCINNATI (OH)
WLWT - NBC 5 [Cincinnati OH]
August 18, 2026
By Ashley Kirklen
After five years in prison, former Cincinnati priest Geoff Drew is out following a 2021 rape conviction. On Monday, Geoff Drew was released after he pleaded guilty to repeated sexual assault of a boy in the late 1980s and early ’90s.
Shortly after Drew’s crimes came to light, Rebecca Surendorf made it her mission to fight for children impacted by sexual abuse. She co-founded Ohioans for Child Protection.
“We are alarmed to realize someone with such a troubling history with children had such a position of authority at our kids’ school,” Surendorf said.
Police say the 10-year-old boy was assaulted in Drew’s office at St. Jude Church. During the trial, the now 41-year-old survivor delivered emotional statements in court.
Ohioans for Child Protection wants to give those survivors even more legal avenues for justice. Surendorf says the group helped in the passage of Erin’s Law, which requires schools to provide age-appropriate education for child sex abuse and sexual violence prevention.
Earlier this year HB 322 criminalized grooming a child for sexual abuse and extended the statute of limitations for mandated reporting statewide. Surendorf says both laws show signs of progress, but more can be done for the survivor in Drew’s conviction and others.
“While he has a criminal conviction as a survivor,” Surendorf said, “we still have shut civil doors to him. Where’s the justice in that? That we’ve opened one set and kept the other set closed?”
Geoff Drew has to register as a sex offender now that he’s out of prison. Last year, a judge rejected Drew’s motion for removal from the sex offender registry after his prison release.
The Archdiocese of Cincinnati says Drew “may no longer present himself as a Catholic priest and he will not be permitted to volunteer in any capacity at any parish, school, or ministry under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.”