Regional Industry & News

A Winter Haven, Florida, pastor faces more than 20 criminal charges after the Polk County Sheriff's Office said he had sexual contact with a 14-year-old boy on multiple occasions without disclosing that he was HIV-positive.

Timothy Chaneyfield, 42, the pastor of St. James United American Free Will Baptist Church, was arrested July 29 at Orlando International Airport as he returned from officiating a funeral in Baltimore. The Polk County Sheriff's Office said its Special Victims Unit opened the investigation July 28 after receiving a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding inappropriate contact between Chaneyfield and a minor. According to investigators, the teenager said he and Chaneyfield connected through a dating app and continued communicating on Instagram, which generated the tip that led to the investigation.

The Sheriff's Office said Chaneyfield picked up the teenager at his subdivision on three separate occasions and drove him to his home in Eagle Lake, where investigators said the two had sexual contact each time. Authorities said Chaneyfield did not disclose to the teenager that he was HIV-positive. Charges against Chaneyfield include three counts of lewd battery of a minor, three counts of traveling to meet a minor, three counts of interfering with the custody of a minor, one count of unlawful use of a two-way communication device, four felony counts of an HIV-infected person engaging in sexual activity without informing a partner, and additional drug-related misdemeanor charges. Chaneyfield was interviewed by detectives and admitted to the sexual contact with the minor, according to the Sheriff's Office. He was booked into the Orange County Jail on a Polk County warrant and transferred to the Polk County Jail on Aug. 1.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said at a news conference that investigators worked to identify and treat the teenage victim quickly given the HIV exposure risk. "We pray that our work was fast enough because we got our victim, the 14-year-old, the HIV cocktail, that we stopped this child from being infected," Judd said. The Sheriff's Office said a separate investigation was opened after an adult man reported having had sexual contact with Chaneyfield and later learning of his HIV-positive status without prior disclosure. Judd said Chaneyfield also worked as a chaplain for Compassionate Care Hospice in Lakeland and had previously worked as a substitute teacher at Crystal Lake Middle School. "I would be shocked if there weren't other victims out there," Judd said. "He was very active. He was very engaged." Authorities are urging anyone who believes they may have had contact with Chaneyfield to seek medical evaluation and contact the Polk County Sheriff's Office.

Calls to a publicly listed phone number for St. James United American Free Will Baptist Church were unanswered Wednesday. Winter Haven residents reacted with shock to the charges. "I hope that all of [the victims] come forward because this is wrong," resident Teresa Story told a local television station.

That investigators identified two separate adult and minor complainants within days of opening the initial cyber-tip investigation suggests the case may extend beyond the charges currently filed, a possibility Judd's office has explicitly flagged in its public appeal for additional victims to come forward. Chaneyfield's roles as both a church pastor and a hospice chaplain, combined with his prior work as a substitute teacher, indicate he held multiple positions involving regular access to vulnerable individuals across different institutional settings, a pattern authorities are likely to examine further as the investigation continues.

Attention going forward is likely to center on whether additional victims come forward following the Sheriff's Office's public appeal, and on the outcome of Chaneyfield's initial court appearance on the pending charges. Continued monitoring of the separate investigation involving the adult complainant, along with any response from the church community, is expected to remain a relevant thread as the case proceeds.