| She’d been told her words would make a difference, so the teenager stood before the judge and leaned toward the microphone. She tried not to look at the man who was pleading guilty to sexually abusing her. “You were a police officer, and you were in uniform,” she said, reading from the victim impact statement she’d spent weeks writing. “You were on duty.” She was 16 years old when South Bend, Ind., police officer Timothy Barber showed up at the Chick-fil-A where she worked in the summer of 2021. Barber, who was 20 years older, knew the girl wanted to be a police officer. He offered to give her rides home in his patrol car. Instead, what Barber did to her in that patrol car led to him being charged with child seduction, official misconduct, public indecency and public nudity.
“My whole life I had been taught to trust police officers. I looked up to you. I listened to you. I obeyed you,” the girl said. Keep reading:
| By Jessica Contrera, John D. Harden and Jenn Abelson |
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