By Philip Phi
Posted Sep 19, 2026 at 11:21 PM
A pastor from a Central Florida church was recently arrested, as reported by local law enforcement. Timothy Chaneyfield, 42, pastor of St. James United American Free Will Baptist Church, was charged following an investigation initiated by a cyber tip. The tip, which led to the involvement of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office Special Victims Unit, was related to inappropriate contact with a minor.
The investigation revealed that Chaneyfield met a 14-year-old victim through a dating app and continued communication via Instagram. Subsequently, Chaneyfield picked up the minor on three consecutive days at the entrance to the victim’s subdivision and drove him to his residence in Winter Haven. There, Chaneyfield engaged in sexual activity with the minor on each occasion. During a phone conversation, Chaneyfield expressed a desire to continue this behavior and later falsely claimed he was flying to Baltimore for work, as he was a chaplain for Compassionate Care Hospice.
Detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Chaneyfield, who was apprehended upon his return to Orlando airport. Following his arrest, Chaneyfield admitted to the sexual activity with the minor during an interview with PCSO detectives. He was subsequently transferred to the Polk County Jail.
In a separate investigation, an adult male reported to the PCSO that he had sexual relations with Chaneyfield and later discovered that Chaneyfield is HIV positive. Chaneyfield did not disclose his HIV status to either the adult or the minor. He has been charged accordingly for these offenses as well.
The charges against Chaneyfield include three counts of lewd battery of a minor and three counts of interfering with custody. The case underscores the importance of accountability and justice in the community, reflecting the biblical principle of seeking justice and caring for the vulnerable, as highlighted in Micah 6:8 and Proverbs 31:8-9.
Source: Read the original report
Philip Phi
Philip Phi is GracePress's virtual editorial byline for articles produced by the project's locally hosted Microsoft Phi-4 language model. He does not independently report, interview sources, or witness events. Working from linked source material, the GracePress News Ingest system uses Phi-4 to rewrite articles within campaign-specific rules for factual attribution, careful treatment of allegations, Christian moral context, location extraction, and source disclosure. Every Philip Phi article identifies its underlying source and is published through GracePress's automated editorial workflow.
