Attorney wants ex-MS Coast federal agent to pay up in fake DNA test, child support case
An attorney is asking for sanctions against a former federal agent and current Hancock County narcotics commander Benjamin Taylor for allegedly producing fraudulent documents in a child support case to deny he fathered a girlfriend’s child.
Attorney Michael Holleman is asking for a hearing before Chancery Judge Jennifer Schloegel that would include witness testimony so the judge could decide whether to order Taylor to pay all attorneys fees and court costs in the child support case.
Holleman represents the child’s mother, Branissa Stroud, a co-petitioner in the state Department of Human Services lawsuit filed in 2020. The child lives with her mother.
A hearing date has not yet been set.
In court documents, Holleman outlines a series of events and allegations against Taylor for manufacturing and producing fake DNA test results that erroneously named someone other than Taylor as the child’s dad. Here’s a look:
- The judge issued the child support order against Taylor in August 2021, and Taylor ignored the order until the state seized thousands of dollars in income from him eight months later.
- Taylor allegedly intercepted, ignored, and disposed of a Aug. 10, 2020, court order sent to his federal employer to withhold the monthly child support payments from Taylor’s pay. Taylor was allegedly able to intercept the order because, at the time, he worked as a federal supervisory agent in Homeland Security Investigations within the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs.
- Taylor lied in court records about Stroud “voluntarily” submitting a DNA sample for herself and the child to support the fraudulent DNA test results. Stroud never provided Taylor with a DNA sample for herself or the little girl.
- Federal investigator Donald Smith in the inspector general’s office for HSI called Holleman and Stroud on June 29, 2021, to tell them he was investigating Taylor for producing fraudulent DNA test results and other matters. Smith said his investigation “confirmed the document was a forgery.”
- Federal investigator Smith told Holleman and Stroud that Taylor had failed a lie detector test administered by federal authorities about the alleged fraud and other matters.
- Federal investigator Smith said he asked the U.S. Attorney’s Office to seek a criminal indictment against Taylor for the crime, but federal prosecutor’s office declined to do so.
- Federal investigator Smith created a Brady file on Taylor about the fraud in the officer’s HSI employment record for disclosure to defense attorneys in cases Taylor investigated. A set of regulations known as the Brady disclosures require prosecutors to disclose such material on officers to defense attorneys to help them try to exonerate their clients in court.
- The fake DNA test results are on letterhead in the name of Hunt’s Genetics and contain “a fraudulent and forged signature of a non-existent laboratory director,” along with a fraudulent notary stamp and forged signature in the name of Dayton, Ohio, notary, Donnell Garry. The Sun Herald interviewed Garry and he confirmed the fraud.
Since information about the fraudulent documents started surfacing in the last week, Taylor has been under investigation for a second time for possible criminal charges.
This week, Taylor’s attorney, Cassidy Anderson, filed court papers asking the judge to allow him to step down as Taylor’s attorney.
Anderson had included the fraudulent documents as exhibits in a motion requesting the judge dismiss her August 2020 order adjudicating Taylor, the father of the child, and ordering him to pay $1,076 in monthly support and $7,760 in back child support. The judge set the first expected payment date for Sept. 1, 2020.
Taylor didn’t contest the initial ruling from August 2020 or voluntarily pay any child support he owed. MDHS didn’t collect a penny from Taylor until the agency intercepted and seized $11,811 from Taylor for child support in early April 2021.
After seizing the money, Taylor allegedly manufactured and produced the falsified documents.
Anderson this week withdrew the request for the judge to withdraw her child support order, noting the DNA test results Taylor provided “falsely bears the notarial seal and signature” of a notary.
