In September of , Tim Barber stood in a St. Joseph County courtroom and told the year-old girl he had statutorily raped that he was sorry for betraying her trust. And instead of protecting you, I became the monster I swore to protect you against. Barber had been a South Bend police officer for about three years when in , he frequented the Chick-Fil-A restaurant on South Michigan Street and befriended a year-old girl who worked there.
Over the course of a month, the year-old Barber groomed the girl , bonding over her desire to work in law enforcement when she grew up. Then on two occasions in August and September of , Barber picked the girl up in his squad car, drove her to a secluded place and sexually assaulted her. Barber also apparently exposed himself to the girl on two occasions while she was at work, once by forcing her to touch his penis while he was in a car going through the drive through.
However, charges specifically related to those instances were dropped when Barber pleaded guilty. He admitted to one count of child seduction and one count of official misconduct, though St. Joseph County Judge Jeffrey Sanford did not give Barber any jail time, instead giving him four years of probation and counseling.
The suit was filed back in federal court in December of and the girl is identified by the pseudonym Jane Doe. Once he learned the girl wanted to become a police officer, that became the focal point of the grooming dynamic. Like many Chick-Fil-A franchises around the country, the South Michigan Street location has a policy of giving free meals to law enforcement officers who are in uniform, though the fast-food chain is not named in the lawsuit.
Representatives for the South Bend Police Department and the city both declined to comment on the lawsuit. Mishawaka attorney Charles Rice is representing the girl and her family and also declined to speak on the record about the case, which is still in discovery.
