A Tristate priest accused in the rape of a 10 year old boy has entered pleas of not guilty to the nine charges against him. Father Geoff Drew was ordered to be held in the Hamilton County Justice Center on $5 million bond after prosecutors said they fear he is a flight risk.
The charges go back thirty years to when Drew worked for the Archdiocese as the music minister at Saint Jude Church in Bridgetown before he became a priest. A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati says they were stunned by the allegations even though the church had received a number of complaints about inappropriate behavior by the priest in recent years. A mother of students at Saint Ignatius school where Father Drew was last stationed says it has come to no surprise to her. Sarah Mierke telling our Scott Sloan on Newsradio 700 WLW that "she had been praying that nothing would be this serious but honestly and unfortunately was not surprised."
Mierke says all the warning signs were there about Father Drew and the leaders of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati just chose to ignore them. She wrote a letter to the Archbishop about her fears which lead her to tell her three sons they could not serve mass at the church because of the priest. You can listen to the entire interview by clicking here.