Ex-MS Coast agent and Hancock officer jailed on criminal charges of perjury and forgery
Former federal agent and longtime Mississippi Coast law enforcement officer Benjamin Taylor has been arrested on felony charges of perjury and two count of forgery, authorities confirmed Wednesday.
Taylor, 45, is being held without bond pending further court action. According to the Hancock County jail docket, officials arrested Taylor shortly after 11 p.m. Tuesday.
His arrest comes less than a year after Chancery Judge Jennifer Schloegel ruled in January that the former Homeland Security Investigations supervisory agent had “committed fraud” by “creating, procuring, and submitting” a fraudulent DNA test in a child support case to deny fathering his girlfriend’s child.
The lead investigator on the case was Mississippi Bureau of Investigations officer Amanda Schoenewitz, who was assigned to investigate the allegations of wrongdoing after a first independent investigation by a retired FBI agent who had ties to Taylor’s family.
Sean Tindell, commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, assigned the new MBI agent to investigate after Sun Herald reports about the Chancery judge finding Taylor committed wrongdoing in a child support case.
In her January 2024 judgment, Judge Schloegel had strong words after a two-day trial in the child support case involving Taylor and his longtime girlfriend and mother of the child, Branissa Stroud.
”Taylor’s conduct in procuring and filing the fake DNA report was an unconscionable plan or scheme which (was) designed to improperly influence the court in its decision,” Schloegel said in her January ruling.
The judge reviewed 40 exhibits and heard testimony from Taylor, Stroud and others before ruling.
At trial, Stroud’s attorney, Michael Holleman, successfully argued for the judge to sanction Taylor by ordering him to pay all court costs and attorney fees in the child support case.
In her order imposing sanctions, the judge applauded Holleman for his work on the case, saying, “This litigation was novel and difficult in that it sought to prove essentially criminal wrongdoing by a high-ranking federal law enforcement officer.”
The state Supreme Court later upheld Schloegel’s ruling in the child support case.
The allegations against Taylor are spelled out in an indictment unsealed this week. The felony charges accuse him of forgery for creating and submitting fraudulent DNA test results in the child support case by forging the signature of a Ohio notary and using a fraudulent notary seal to create the fraudulent DNA results.
When the allegations first surfaced more than a year ago, the Sun Herald reviewed the DNA test results and interviewed Dayton, Ohio, notary, Donnell Garry, who confirmed the notary seal and signature of his name on the test results were a fraud.. .
The perjury charge backs Schloegel’s ruling that Taylor repeatedly and consistently lied under oath during the child support trial.
After the appellate ruling, Holleman called Taylor’s appeal “frivolous” and successfully argued for sanctions against Taylor that requires him to pay all attorneys fees and double the costs of the appellate process.
Holleman called the appeal from Taylor of Schloegel’s ruling ‘as a continuation of that fraud” that Taylor had already committed in court.
“Taylor began a scheme to commit fraud on the Chancery Court, on DHS, and on his infant child by creating and filing a fake DNA genetic test report purporting to show this was not (the child’s) father,” Holleman said in the new filing asking for the sanctions.
“The evidence demonstrated clearly and convincingly that Taylor created a fake DNA test report” and had it submitted to a court of law, Holleman said.
Taylor, he argued, continued to perpetuate the fraud when he repeatedly lied under oath to “avoid responsibility for his fraud and to shift blame” to the child’s mother.
Charges outline fraud, perjury allegations
The allegations against Taylor are spelled out in an indictment unsealed this week. The felony charges accuse Taylor of forgery for creating and submitting fraudulent DNA test results in the child support case by forging the signature of an Ohio notary and using a fraudulent notary seal to create the fraudulent DNA results.
The perjury charge backs up Schloegel’s ruling that Taylor repeatedly lied during court testimony in the same case.
When the allegations against Taylor first surfaced more than a year ago, the Sun Herald reviewed the DNA test results and interviewed Dayton, Ohio, notary, Donnell Garry, who confirmed the notary seal and signature of his name on the test results were fraudulent.
Second criminal investigation follows Sun Herald reports
Despite Judge Schloegel’s findings in the Chancery case, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation’s original independent investigation into the criminal allegations against Taylor did not result in any criminal action against Taylor. Retired MBI agent Shelby Smith conducted the first independent investigation.
The Sun Herald listened to Smith’s recorded interview with Holleman and Stroud during the first independent investigation that resulted in no action against Taylor. During that conversation, Smith talked about how he attended police training with Taylor’s father and watched Ben Taylor grow up as a child. Smith said he had known both father and son since 1994.
Tindell said before the second investigation began that he didn’t know about the now retired MBI agent’s connection to Taylor at the time of the first independent investigation.
After MBI completed its independent investigation, information in the case was turned over to the Attorney General’s office for further action.
The Sun Herald started investigating the allegations of wrongdoing against Taylor when they first surfaced, conducting interviews, attending court hearings, and reviewing records, pictures, and videos of Stroud and Taylor’s interactions.
After the Sun Herald reported on the alleged wrongdoing, Taylor was abruptly relieved of his duties in Hancock County, and a second criminal investigation was started.
A Brady disclosure about Taylor’s dishonesty
Since Schloegel’s ruling, the district attorney’s office for Harrison, Hancock, and Stone counties alerted all police chiefs and sheriffs in that district, the attorney’s general office, and the Mississippi Department of Public Safety of the findings as a part of a Brady disclosure.
The Sun Herald requested and obtained a copy of the Jan. 17, 2024, letter in which the prosecutor’s office disclosed the judge’s findings to sheriffs and local police chiefs.
In the Brady disclosure, the DA’s Office noted specific findings by Schloegel as listed below:
- That Taylor “procured or created a false DNA parentage test certificate.”
- That Taylor “caused his (then) attorney to file the fraudulent certificate with the Chancery Court with the intention to set aside a valid order of the court.”
- That Taylor “knowingly gave false sworn testimony in discovery responses,” and
- That Taylor “intentionally and knowingly testified to false material facts in his testimony throughout this proceeding in Chancery Court.”
“The court record reflects that Ben Taylor has submitted false documents and made false statements under oath in this civil court proceeding in Hancock Chancery Court,” the document says.
Defense attorney addresses criminal charges
After the criminal charges surfaced, Holleman addressed the allegations and what the mother of the child has gone through as a result of Taylor’s alleged wrongdoing.
“Branissa Stroud is a single, hard-working mother of four children,” he said. “She has overcome many obstacles to support and raise her children. Her oldest child just entered college on a full scholarship..
“Overcoming and exposing Mr. Taylor’s fraud in connection with her youngest child was a challenge,” he said.
“She was fighting a fight against power, and Branissa had no funds to fight that fight, so I felt compelled to help her.
“In a courtroom, with the assistance of counsel, before a fair Chancellor, she prevailed. Justice prevailed. Now, the case enters the criminal justice arena. “
Holleman said Stroud plans to cooperate fully with the criminal case and “speak her truth.”
“We have a system of justice based on the rule of law,” he said. “Mr. Taylor should be accorded all the due process, rights, and presumptions of the very justice system he is accused of attempting to corrupt. The rule of law must apply equally to everyone, even Mr. Taylor.”
This story was originally published December 18, 2024 at 10:27 AM.
