Ex-MS Coast federal agent and Hancock County deputy arraigned on criminal charges
Former federal agent and longtime Mississippi Coast law enforcement officer Benjamin Taylor is set for trial in August on felony charges of perjury and two counts of forgery.
Judge Christopher Schmidt set the Aug. 11 trial date on Monday after Taylor, 45, waived his arraignment and pleaded not guilty to the charges. Assistant Attorney General Kimberly Morrison appeared in Hancock County Circuit Court on behalf of the state.
Taylor has been out of jail on bond since shortly after his arrest in December. His arrest happened less than a year after Chancery Judge Jennifer Schloegel found in a civil trial that the former Homeland Security Investigations supervisory agent and Hancock County sheriff’s narcotics commander “committed fraud” by “creating, procuring and submitting” a fraudulent DNA test in a child support case.
In Schloegel’s January 2024 ruling, she said, “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.”
Mississippi Bureau of Investigations Officer Amanda Schloenewitz headed up the criminal probe that resulted in Taylor’s arrest..
Sean Tindell, commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, assigned Schloenewitz to conduct a second criminal investigation after discovering a now-retired MBI agent with close personal ties to Taylor and his father had conducted the first investigation.
In the criminal case, authorities 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.
When the allegations first surfaced, 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 supports Schloegel’s findings that Taylor repeatedly and consistently lied under oath during the child support trial involving Taylor and the mother of the child, Branissa Stroud.
Schloegel 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.
Holleman called the appeal of the Chancery Court ruling “frivolous” and successfully argued for sanctions against Taylor that require him to pay all attorneys fees and double the costs of the appellate process.
“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 during the appellate process. “The evidence demonstrated clearly and convincingly that Taylor created a fake DNA test report and had it submitted to a court of law.”
Since the criminal case surfaced, Holleman addressed what the mother of the child has dealt with 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.”
Stroud is cooperating with the criminal investigation.
“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.
“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 February 10, 2025 at 1:24 PM.
