Ex-Coast Homeland Security agent accused of forging DNA test to deny he fathered a child
Hancock County sheriff’s narcotics commander and former longtime federal agent Benjamin “Ben” Taylor allegedly falsified DNA tests to deny he fathered a child with a longtime girlfriend, according to interviews and records obtained by the Sun Herald.
“The inspector general’s office for Homeland Security did a full investigation and told me the documents were a fraud,” Gulfport attorney Michael Holleman said. “It’s just incredible that somebody is put in charge of enforcing the laws who have forged a document and had it submitted to a chancery court.“
After serving as a longtime supervisor in drug enforcement for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and in other capacities as a local and state law enforcement officer in Mississippi, Taylor joined the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department as head of narcotics about two months ago.
Taylor joined the sheriff’s department after he abruptly left his federal job about two years shy of his retirement eligibility.
His departure came after a federal investigator last year first looked into the allegations that Taylor had falsified documents in the child support case in Harrison County.
The allegations against Taylor started surfacing once again in recent weeks. and soon came to the attention of Hancock County Sheriff Ricky Adam.
Taylor had given the falsified documents to his attorney, Cassidy Anderson, who then filed them on Taylor’s behalf last year in a child support lawsuit against him in Harrison County Chancery Court.
Sheriff Ricky Adam said he placed Taylor on administrative leave without pay once he learned about the allegations.
“This is something that happened a couple of years ago, and it’s now come to light,” Adam said. “We are investigating it along with MBI (Mississippi Bureau of Investigation). If the investigation shows he did something illegal, he will be terminated immediately.”
The investigation, Adam said, could ultimately result in criminal charges.
“When things like this come to light, we will act on it,” Adam said.
The Sun Herald reached out to Taylor, who was also married at the time the allegations surfaced, for comment but did not hear back.
Sworn affidavit identifies Taylor as child’s father
The state Department of Human Services filed the lawsuit in April 2020 while Taylor was still working as a federal agent to obtain monthly child support and back child support from Taylor for the now 3-year-old child. The child’s mother, Branissa Stroud, is included in the lawsuit for child support because the little girl lives with her.
Stroud signed an affidavit naming Taylor as the child’s father early on.
In the last week, Stroud went public with her issues involving Taylor, naming him as the child’s father and posting pictures of the two together and with her, Taylor, and the little girl. In many of the pictures, Taylor is wearing his federal Homeland Security vest with his gun nearby.
Stroud also shared the falsified documents.
“I have all the facts!” Stroud said. “Everything can be looked up! He is a (an alleged) fraud! Hancock County should be ashamed of themselves for putting someone (like Taylor) in charge of people’s freedom...”
Falsified documents and money seizures
Shortly after MDHS filed the lawsuit, a hearing was scheduled in August 2020 before Judge Jennifer Schloegel regarding the DHS filing for child support, including back child support that Taylor purportedly owed.
Taylor failed to show up to that hearing to contest being the child’s father.
Taylor didn’t voice any objection to being named the child’s father until late April 2021 — a year later, the judge ordered him to pay $1,076 in monthly child support and $7,760 in back child support and other fees.
Taylor challenged the ruling in court filings that included the falsified documents submitted as exhibits in the child support case.
Taylor’s attorney filed the motion challenging the judge’s earlier ruling in late April 2021 after the state seized over $11,000 from Taylor for child support, Holleman said.
In the court filings, Anderson asked Judge Schloegel to vacate her earlier orders regarding child support because the since confirmed falsified documents identify someone other than Taylor who fathered the little girl.
Anderson also asked the judge to issue an order for the state and Stroud to pay all associated court costs and attorneys fees.
“It’s incredible,” Holleman said. “The investigator told me he even sent investigators to the office address (in Manhattan, New York) for the company listed on the letterhead (of the falsified DNA test results), and there was no business there by that name. He told me the document was a fraud, and he told me he tried to get someone to prosecute but ... (the U.S. Attorney’s Office) refused to do it.”
The Sun Herald reached out to the federal investigator who investigated the allegations for an interview, but he said he could not comment and referred questions to his agency’s legal department.
The Sun Herald, however, has since conducted interviews and collected other records to confirm the documents Taylor provided his attorney are fraudulent.
‘Not my signature, not my stamp’
The Sun Herald reviewed the DNA test results extensively before making calls to determine the validity of the documents.
The documents are dated Feb. 4, 2021, in the name of Hunt Genetics. They are authenticated as an official document through a falsified notary stamp in the name of Donnell Garry of Dayton, Ohio.
The Sun Herald reached out to Garry for comment and provided him copies of the documents that included his alleged notary stamp and signature to find out if he had notarized the documents for Taylor.
“It is not my signature on the stamp,” Garry said. “It’s not my (notary) stamp, and the commission date is wrong. I’ve never been to Mississippi. I’ve never notarized anything for a paternity test. I notarize loan modifications and some vehicle purchases.”
In addition, Garry said he previously notarized citations issued through the city of Dayton for trash and debris violations when he worked for 15 years as a supervisor in street maintenance in the city’s housing department.
“I have no idea how this happened,” he said. “But it’s a fraud.”
Attorneys question authenticity of court documents
In the last week, Garry said two Mississippi attorneys had called him regarding the authenticity of the documents.
In addition, an investigator contacted him about the same thing some time ago.
Garry said he told those he spoke to in each case that he had not notarized any of the documents.
He said Taylor’s attorney, Anderson, and another attorney he identified from the Harrison County public defender’s office were among those who called him to ask about the authenticity of the tests.
After Anderson made his call, he filed court papers in the civil case before Judge Schloegel to ask that he be allowed to withdraw as Taylor’s attorney.
In the filing, Anderson noted that since he became Taylor’s attorney, “events have transpired which make continuation of the attorney-client relationship no longer in either the attorney or the client’s best interests.”
In addition, Anderson filed a motion to withdraw the previous request for the judge to vacate the child support order, noting he was doing so because the paperwork naming someone other than Taylor as the child’s father “falsely bears the notarial seal and signature of Donnell Garry.”
The Sun Herald reached out to Anderson for comment but did not hear back.
More on Coast law enforcement career
For more than a decade, members of the community and law enforcement officers often lauded Taylor as a trusted law enforcement officer bound by a commitment to serve with honor, truth and justice.
On one occasion in 2020, he earned nods as a top law enforcement officer of the year for his work in Waveland.
He also earned accolades from community leaders in other areas, including in the city of Diamondhead, for his service there.
Taylor also was among those who took center stage at the memorial service for Hancock County Sheriff’s Deputy Lt. Michael Boutte following the deputy’s shooting death in the line of duty in February 2021.
Taylor praised Boutte at the service along with other distinguished officers and talked about the importance of “being a good cop” and more.
“Law enforcement is a difficult profession,” Taylor told the crowd. “Current events, officer misconduct and political ideologies, and mass misinformation have put us on a collision course with some of the people we serve. Simply put, the abnormal has become normal.”
He talked about how “it’s no longer enough to be a good cop.”
“We have to be exceptional human beings with a genuine concern for our fellow man,” he said.
Less than a month later, Taylor received notice of the child support lawsuit and so began his fight to deny he fathered a girlfriend’s child.
This story was originally published June 8, 2022 at 11:42 AM.
