MOUNT VERNON — Two Knox County residents renewed calls for Drenda Keesee to step down as Knox County commissioner during Tuesday’s session.
Rebecca Nourse of Howard said Keesee brought sexual misconduct allegations surrounding Faith Life Church into the commissioners’ office. Keesee co-pastors the New Albany church with her husband, Gary.
Referencing Keesee’s statement in the Mount Vernon News that she will not “abandon the trust that voters have placed in me,” Nourse said there is no trust.
“Just listen to your community. Your community is asking you to please step down because of allegations against your family. You need to deal with your home first,” Nourse said.
Nourse also said Keesee is not living up to her campaign promise of being in the office daily.
Keesee refuted Nourse’s claim that she promised to be in the office daily. She also said the Faith Life allegations “have nothing to do with me personally.”
Centerburg resident Darcey Highley said the trust that voters gave Keesee was misled.
“When people voted for you, you claim to run on transparency. You have handled this with zero transparency, and everyone has been watching,” Highley said.
“The transparent thing to do when this first came out was to acknowledge it, resign, or take a leave of absence so you could be there for your family, and cops could investigate. Instead, you called it an attack on your family.”
Highley said that during her campaign, Keesee was not open and transparent about the financial investigation Attorney General Dave Yost’s office conducted in 2020.
“There was no financial investigation while I was campaigning,” Keesee said.
“We know that anybody can be investigated for anything. Allegations can be made by anyone. It doesn’t mean it’s true and valid. And once it was investigated, there was absolutely no violation found whatsoever,” she said.
Sexual misconduct allegations under investigation
The Licking County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the allegations of sexual misconduct related to the church.
In a statement earlier this month, Faith Life Church attorney Katie Taber acknowledged a criminal investigation into allegations of abuse involving two individuals with connections to the church.
Documents that Knox Pages obtained from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office through a public records request confirm multiple victims allege abuse stretching back potentially 22 years.
“There’s still an investigation ongoing, and I can’t comment or defend or talk about any of those pieces,” Keesee said Tuesday.
“There are many things I’d love to say I just can’t say right now.”
