{"id":29202,"date":"2026-08-06T01:10:35","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T20:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=29202"},"modified":"2026-08-06T01:10:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T20:10:35","slug":"florida-pastor-accused-of-having-sex-with-14-year-old-boy-not-revealing-hiv-diagnosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=29202","title":{"rendered":"Florida pastor accused of having sex with 14-year-old boy, not revealing HIV diagnosis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit_1500w\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260805-st-james-free-will-church-florida-mn-1220-053e25.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p id=\"anchor-b2d4b0\" class=\"body-graf\">A \u201cdope-smoking pedophile preacher\u201d had sex with at least one underage boy and an adult man without telling them he was HIV positive \u2014 and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfla.com\/news\/polk-county\/sheriff-judd-speaks-on-arrest-of-winter-haven-pastor\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Florida officials said Tuesday<\/a> they fear there might be additional victims.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-57f9e5\" class=\"body-graf\">Timothy Chaneyfield, the 42-year-old pastor at St. James United American Free Will Baptist Church in Winter Haven, was arrested after getting off a plane at Orlando International Airport on July 29, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polksheriff.org\/news-investigations\/polk-county-news\/2026\/08\/04\/pcso-special-victims-unit-detectives-arrest-winter-haven-pastor-for-sexual-battery-of-a-child-and-several-other-felonies\" target=\"_blank\">according to a Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-fb362d\" class=\"body-graf\">The suspect and young male victim, 14, met on a dating app before Chaneyfield allegedly took their chats to Instagram which led to three meetings for sex, the sheriff\u2019s office said. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-ae090c\" class=\"body-graf\">Tips from Instagram and the National Center for Missing &amp; Exploited Children led detectives to Chaneyfield, Polk County sheriff Grady Judd told reporters on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-0bbb5a\" class=\"body-graf\">A 26-year-old man who also had sex with Chaneyfield was located by investigators and tested positive for HIV, Judd said.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-0ad35e\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cThe 26-year-old didn\u2019t know (Chaneyfield was HIV positive) until we brought it to his attention and the 14-year-old had no clue that he was having unprotected sex with an adult that was HIV positive,\u201d Judd said. \u201cThis guy\u2019s nasty. He\u2019s a menace to society and he\u2019s proven that.\u201d <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-03b961\" class=\"body-graf\">Polk County deputies wanted to arrest Chaneyfield last week, but the pastor was in Baltimore, leading a funeral service.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-ac6e44\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cWe actually tried to catch him while he was in Baltimore because we didn\u2019t even want him wandering the streets of Baltimore. What is he up to there?\u201d Judd said.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-d40ad0\" class=\"body-graf\">But the sheriff said his department got \u201czero assistance\u201d from authorities in Baltimore \u2014 an agency, a spokesperson for Judd on Wednesday, identified as the Maryland Department of Transportation Authority police.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-2b17a9\" class=\"body-graf\">A representative for the MDTA police could not be immediately reached for comment on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-c7707a\" class=\"body-graf\">Chaneyfield has been booked on suspicion of three counts of lewd battery of a minor, three counts interfering with custody of a minor, unlawful use of a two-way communication device, three counts of traveling to meet a minor, four counts of having sex as an HIV-infected person without informing the partner, possession of marijuana and five counts possession of drug paraphernalia.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-8d1fca\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cThis is a dope-smoking preacher right here in front of you,\u201d Judd said. \u201cHe\u2019s a dope-smoking pedophile preacher right before you. And now he\u2019s locked up in the county jail where he should be. He was well respected in the community. People trusted him, they believed in him. And now our plea is: if you\u2019ve engaged this guy in sex, let us tell you (about his HIV status) because he didn\u2019t.\u201d <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-b3c8dd\" class=\"body-graf\">The suspect also worked as the chaplain for Compassionate Care Hospice in Lakeland and had previously been employed by Crystal Lake Middle School as a substitute teacher.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-c67307\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cI would be shocked if there weren\u2019t other children victims out there,\u201d Judd said. \u201cI would be shocked if there weren\u2019t other victims out there. He was very active. He was very engaged.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-2d9b7c\" class=\"body-graf\">Calls to a publicly listed phone number for St. James United American Free Will Baptist Church in Winter Haven on Wednesday were met with a message that the line had been disconnected.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-9737c2\" class=\"body-graf\">Representatives for Compassionate Care Hospice and Broward County Public Schools could not be immediately reached for comment on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-88e027\" class=\"body-graf\"><strong>The United American Freewill Baptist Conference said the St. James United American Free Will Baptist Church in Winter Haven \u201cis not affiliated with, governed by, or under the ecclesiastical authority or jurisdiction of the United American Freewill Baptist Conference.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-3fd824\" class=\"body-graf\"><strong>\u201cAccordingly, we are unable to offer guidance, insight, legal interpretation, or further comment concerning the matter,\u201d the national body said.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-d20339\" class=\"endmark body-graf\">It wasn\u2019t clear on Wednesday if Chaneyfield had hired or been assigned a criminal defense to speak on his behalf.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A \u201cdope-smoking pedophile preacher\u201d had sex with at least one underage boy and an adult man without telling them he was HIV positive \u2014 and Florida officials said Tuesday they fear there might be additional victims. Timothy Chaneyfield, the 42-year-old pastor at St. James United American Free Will Baptist Church in Winter Haven, was arrested&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_nbcnews-fp-1200-630,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260805-st-james-free-will-church-florida-mn-1220-053e25.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}