Constable thought he could get away with sexually exploiting troubled victims: grand jury
A Chambersburg constable charged last week with hundreds of sex crimes boasted of being a "sugar daddy" to upwards of 50 females who agreed to have sex with him to feed their drug addictions, according to a grand jury report.
Timothy R. Heefner, 64, faces 704 counts of human trafficking, prostitution-related offenses, sexual extortion and other crimes, according to court records.
He is in Franklin County Jail on $1.25 million bail. Most of his victims are at or were once at the same facility.
After hearing from a dozen victims and seeing a variety of evidence, the grand jury summarized its findings with this statement:
"In summary, we find that Timothy Heefner is a predator and has gotten away with sexually victimizing young women in our county for far too long. He believed he was permitted to commit these crimes and that he could get away with it all because his victims were broken, sick, addicted and in the shadows.
"Many victims sadly agreed with him and avoided coming forward to police, for obvious reasons, and this Grand Jury process was necessary to that end. Those who appeared before us were very brave. Heefner believed no one would care and no one would believe these young women, and he was wrong. We believe them."
No attorney information is listed for Heefner in court records.
Informant: Heefner preyed on girls with drug addictions
A Franklin County Children and Youth Services referral kicked off the police investigation into Heefner in July 2021, according to the grand jury report.
The person who made the initial report to CYS stated that Heefner would boast about being a "sugar daddy" and would "prey on young girls with drug addictions."
In an interview with police, the victim said Heefner would "brag about having 40-50 'sugar babies,'" according to the report.
Most, if not all, of these were drug-addicted females living throughout Franklin County whom he "exploited" by offering them drugs or money when they were suffering from withdrawals from heroin or opioids.
Some were underage, the informant said.
Heefner primarily used Facebook Messenger to communicate with victims, the informant said. His account name "Tim Bo" is the same name he would use to refer to himself in communications with the females, she added.
The informant told police Heefner used a special vocabulary when communicating with victims. For example, an "oil change" referred to oral sex.
The informant said Heefner offered to pay her what he called a "finder's fee" of $100 to recruit other victims, according to court documents.
Most, if not all, of the informant's allegations were corroborated through phone records, social media records or testimony from other victims.
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'I'm the big pimp of the East Coast,' Heefner allegedly tells inmate
A corporal with Chambersburg Police Department was aware of reports that Heefner used his employment as a constable to have inappropriate contact with females and that he engaged in sex acts with females "significantly" younger than him. Waynesboro police had received similar reports.
Heefner had also been the subject of an investigation in 2017-18 regarding inappropriate communication with female inmates at Franklin County Jail.
Police obtained phone calls, messages and account and financial records associated with Heefner and female inmates from Franklin County Jail this January.
On many of the calls, Heefner could be heard using the same auto-repair terms to refer to sex acts as the first informant described.
During a call on May 5, 2020, Heefner told a female inmate he worked as a constable and discussed his duties before moving the conversation to his other activities, according to the report. He also talked about "people thinking that he is a 'pimp worldwide and I'm trafficking people in 51 countries,'" and afterward said, "man, I wish."
On a call on June 4, 2021, Heefner asked a female inmate to tell his "friends" hello. He also made the comment, "Life's like a corndog man, ya know, the b-----s only want some w----r if you got bread around it," according to the report.
On another call 10 days later, Heefner talked about a "'sugar daddy' prepaid card," the report states.
In the same call, he also called himself "the big pimp of the East Coast," and said "I'm from Germany man, I bring these b-----s all over the world here, man," according to the report.
There were several calls in which Heefner made comments toward police he believed may be listening:
"Hey cops if you're listening remember that, remember that I got a new Sugar Daddy Card."
After referring to an "oil change," he said, "that's for the cops so they have something to laugh about."
"That's why they constantly listen to my calls, because they think I'm like some f----n' international pimp, because I got so many women."
Police also obtained Heefner's jail calls from this year. He "frequently stated that there were 'rats' in the Franklin County Jail, apparently referring to female inmates who were providing law enforcement with information regarding his sexual crimes," according to court documents.
Law enforcement also accessed 33,000 pages of Heefner's Facebook records on Jan. 3, 2022.
Police identified more than 20 females whom Heefner either communicated with directly or solicited for sex.
"Heefner appeared to conduct this activity by messaging these females throughout the daytime hours so it appeared as though he may have been soliciting sexual acts for money during the course of his active employment as a PA Constable," court documents state.
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Victims share similar stories with grand jury
The grand jury began receiving evidence and testimony on Jan. 13, 2023. Eleven witnesses testified under oath and explained Heefner "regularly and systematically provides young, vulnerable women with money for drugs in exchange for sex."
The grand jury's statement continued: "These young women, mostly his victims and mostly broken in many ways, reported that Heefner also directly exchanged controlled substances for sex. It has become clear that these young women were specifically targeted or preyed upon due to their addiction and desperation, and that Heefner personally hunted them and benefited from their vulnerabilities by facilitating their access to drugs."
Victims shared a number of similar stories and corroborated one another's version of events.
A number of victims testified not only were they not attracted to Heefner and only interacted with him because he gave them money or drugs, but that he controlled their access to drugs because he was their source of money to buy them. One victim testified that Heefner would also facilitate drug transactions because he knew his control over his victims was tied to their addictions. "He knew if he wanted to keep them hooked, he needed to have somebody who had what they wanted," she said.
Victims testified that Heefner would initially claim he was a retired constable, but then would refer to being actively employed as a means to threaten them. A victim said, "Heefner also told young females that if they didn't perform a sexual act or engage in sexual intercourse, he could get them into trouble through his job as a PA State Constable. One victim said she threatened to call the police, leading Heefner to threaten that his 'people' were watching to keep her in line. This was part of Heefner's 'different side' if he wouldn't get what he wanted," according to the grand jury report.
Heefner allegedly kept "spreadsheets" to keep track of his "sugar babies," the sex acts they performed for him, dates, and how much money he gave them. One victim said she knew of 80 victims, while another said she believed there were around 100. He kept a ranking of his victims and would take his "top girls" on trips and shopping sprees, one victim testified.
A number of victims described Heefner showing off a T-shirt depicting various sex toys and sex-related words. They also said Heefner liked to design custom T-shirts describing locations where he met females for sex.
Several victims shared similar descriptions of Heefner's apartment on North Main Street in Chambersburg. Some described a wall that he would have females sign. One victim said she saw 20 toothbrushes with females' names on them, and another said she saw many "packets" with toothbrushes and toothpaste in his bathroom closet. Other victims described Heefner providing a toothbrush and other supplies to help them "clean up" after sex.
Here are some highlights from the victims' testimonies:
Victim 1: She said she went to Heefner's residence to clean, she believed. When he exposed himself and propositioned her for sex, she agreed out of fear. She testified she was "financially desperate and needed money to help pay for rent," leading her to have relations with him for money about 15 times.
Victim 2: She said she met Heefner through a friend, whom he paid for setting them up. Heefner gave her an "allowance" of about $120 a week using a pre-paid card. In confirming Heefner's "vocabulary" for sex acts, she said it was her belief that "tires rotated" referred to "full-on sex."
Victim 3: She testified Heefner first propositioned her mother, who was in jail, before turning his attention to her and soliciting her for sex at least 20 times. In exchange for sex acts with her, he would put money on her mother's jail account. The victim added that Heefner attempted to make her engage in sex with other males he knew.
Victim 4: She testified she was 16 when Heefner first contacted her on Facebook and 17 when he solicited her for sex for the first time (police confirmed this information using the Facebook records). She said Heefner also bought her alcohol in exchange for oral sex from her and an underage friend.
Victim 6: Heefner also drove her and another female to Baltimore, New Jersey, North Carolina and other locations to buy drugs, she said. She said on one trip to Baltimore, Heefner "personally went into a building to buy drugs for her." After they returned from one of these trips, she testified, Heefner raped her when she turned down his request for sex.
Victim 7: She testified she was 15 or 16 when she met Heefner through a friend, who was 14 or 15. The victim told the grand jury that Heefner "won't do nothing unless you do something up front."
Victim 11: Having heard about Heefner's activities from a friend (a victim who also testified), she testified that she reached out to Heefner on her own because she had a new baby and was desperate for money. She was in and out of jail, and said Heefner was a "big topic" among the female inmates. She said he was aware of the grand jury investigation.
A twelfth victim agreed to work with police and record a meeting with Heefner. Police listened live as the woman met Heefner in the parking lot of Coyle Free Library before going into his nearby apartment. She was told to leave if he asked for sex.
The "conversation with Heefner surreptitiously provided investigators with information regarding the previously described items of evidence of his human trafficking," the grand jury report states.
Search warrants turn up items described by victims
Investigators executed a search warrant four days later. Heefner was home and appeared to be wearing the same T-shirt he had on when police recorded the informant's visit, which featured a cartoon of an elderly man and young female and the statement, "Sugar daddies have more fun."
Items seized included:
a blanket with pictures of females
travel kit/toothbrush kit with the initials "MT" and "FF"
several "Sugar Daddy" Visa pre-paid cards
more than 100 letters from female inmates
articles and pictures of females
A later search of his cellphone turned up a "ledger," similar to the spreadsheets described by several victims. Police determined Heefner kept track of about 50 victims.
Police also found several deleted videos of females performing sex acts with Heefner. Police said it appeared he recorded the videos without the victims' knowledge.
What is a constable?
Heefner was elected constable for Chambersburg borough's Fourth Ward, election records show. The deputy clerk in the Franklin County Commissioner's Office, Jean Byers, said it appears he was first elected via write-ins in 2015 and was re-elected in 2021.
Considered law enforcement officers, constables have the authority to make arrests (with or without a warrant) for felonies and breaches of peace, according to constablepa.us. They perform services for magisterial district courts and are mandated to protect the polls on election days.
Heefner's preliminary hearing is set for 8:30 a.m. Sept. 26 in Franklin County Central Court.
Amber South can be reached at asouth@publicopinionnews.com.
This article originally appeared on Chambersburg Public Opinion: Chambersburg constable bragged about 50 'sugar babies': grand jury
