A 42-year-old Florida pastor faces seven criminal charges after allegedly grooming a teenage boy online, bringing him home for sex on three occasions, and never disclosing that he carries HIV, a betrayal of trust that Polk County's sheriff called an abuse of "the power and the persuasion" of the pulpit.

Timothy Chaneyfield, a pastor at St. James United American Free Will Baptist Church who also worked as a hospice chaplain, was arrested July 29 at Orlando's airport after stepping off a flight from Baltimore, where he had been preaching at a funeral service. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd laid out the case at a Tuesday press conference, describing how investigators traced Chaneyfield's alleged contact with the 14-year-old victim back to a dating app and then to direct messages on Instagram.

The investigation began after Instagram submitted a cyber tip to the Polk County Sheriff's Office flagging alleged inappropriate activity between Chaneyfield and a minor. Detectives determined that Chaneyfield allegedly drove to the boy's neighborhood, picked him up, and took him to his home in Eagle Creek, Florida, where the sexual abuse allegedly occurred on three separate occasions. Chaneyfield never told the teen he was HIV-positive, the New York Post reported.

Sheriff Judd: "He wasn't preaching, he was messing around"

Judd, known for blunt press conferences, did not hold back about the charges. He told reporters that Chaneyfield used his standing as a recognized minister to gain access to victims.

"He groomed a child online, drove to the child's neighborhood, picked him up, took him to his home, had sex with him."

Judd added that investigators moved quickly to get the 14-year-old an HIV prevention drug cocktail after learning of the alleged abuse. Whether that intervention came fast enough to prevent infection remains an open question.

The sheriff made clear that the teen was not the only person allegedly harmed. A 26-year-old man told investigators he had sexual contact with Chaneyfield, and has since tested positive for HIV. Chaneyfield allegedly concealed his status from that man as well.

Judd addressed the disparity between Chaneyfield's public role and his alleged conduct in stark terms:

"On those three different occasions, he wasn't preaching, but he was messing around."

The case is one of several recent instances in which clergy have faced serious criminal allegations. In Texas, an Amarillo pastor was arrested in a state prostitution sting in Randall County, underscoring a pattern that erodes public confidence in church leadership.

Seven charges span abuse, HIV concealment, and drug possession

Chaneyfield faces a broad set of charges: lewd battery of a minor, interfering with custody of a minor, unlawful use of a two-way communication device, traveling to meet a minor, having sex as an HIV-infected person without informing the partner, possession of marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

The charge of having sex while HIV-positive without disclosure is a standalone criminal offense under Florida law. Prosecutors do not need to prove transmission occurred, only that the infected person failed to inform a sexual partner before contact.

Chaneyfield also previously worked at Crystal Lake Middle School, though his specific role there has not been disclosed. That detail adds another layer of concern: a man now charged with sexually abusing a child once held a position inside a school that serves children of roughly the same age as his alleged victim.

No information has emerged about whether Chaneyfield has entered a plea, retained counsel, or made any public statement about the charges. The Polk County Sheriff's Office has not announced additional confirmed victims beyond the 14-year-old and the 26-year-old adult.

Judd, however, warned that investigators believe more victims may exist. He urged anyone who had sexual contact with Chaneyfield to seek medical care immediately and contact the sheriff's office.

"We fear that there was other victims out there because he was very aggressive, and very adamant about having sex with apparently adults or children."

The case follows a broader pattern of church leaders facing criminal prosecution. In Louisiana, a pastor was convicted on 25 counts after stealing more than $343,000 from his own congregations, a different crime, but the same fundamental betrayal of a congregation's trust.

Chaneyfield allegedly used Instagram to reach a child

The grooming process, as described by Judd, followed a now-familiar playbook. Chaneyfield allegedly made initial contact with the 14-year-old through a dating app, then shifted the conversation to Instagram's direct messaging feature. From there, he allegedly arranged in-person meetings, driving to the boy's neighborhood, picking him up, and bringing him back to his own home.

Instagram's cyber tip to law enforcement is what set the investigation in motion. The platform flagged the activity, and the Polk County Sheriff's Office opened a case. That tip may have prevented further abuse, but it also raises a question the sheriff's office has not answered: how long the contact went on before the platform flagged it.

The timeline of the alleged abuse, the specific dates of the three encounters, when the cyber tip arrived, and how quickly investigators acted, has not been publicly detailed beyond the July 29 arrest date and the Tuesday press conference. The year of the arrest was not specified in available reporting.

In South Carolina, a Pawleys Island church pastor and director resigned after a sex offender was allegedly given access to children, another case where church leadership failed to protect the most vulnerable people in its care.

Judd invoked a "court much higher than ours"

The sheriff closed his remarks by drawing a direct line between Chaneyfield's alleged crimes and the authority he wielded as a minister. Judd did not frame this as a failure of religion, he framed it as a corruption of religion by one man.

"Jesus doesn't like that, and he'll have to answer to that one day in a court much higher than ours, that he hid behind the cloak, that he abused the power and the persuasion of a well-recognized minister in order to groom children and apparently at least one adult."

That distinction matters. The overwhelming majority of pastors, priests, and ministers serve their communities faithfully and would be the first to demand accountability for someone who exploited a position of spiritual trust to prey on a child. The anger here is not directed at the church, it is directed at a man who allegedly used it as a shield.

And the consequences of that alleged betrayal are not abstract. A 14-year-old boy is now waiting to learn whether a drug cocktail administered after the fact was enough to keep him from contracting a lifelong virus. A 26-year-old man has already tested positive. Cases like this one, and like the former youth pastor charged in his wife's cliff death, remind congregations that a title and a pulpit are not substitutes for character, and that accountability must apply to everyone who holds a position of trust over others.

When someone exploits the trust of a congregation and the innocence of a child at the same time, the justice system owes both of them a full and unflinching answer.