New criminal investigation of disgraced agent considered by MS public safety commissioner

Mississippi Department of Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell said he plans to consult with the local district attorney’s office to determine whether to reopen an independent criminal investigation into longtime federal agent and Mississippi law enforcement officer Benjamin “Ben” Taylor.

Tindell made the decision Thursday in the aftermath of a Sun Herald report about Chancery Judge Jennifer Schloegel finding Taylor “committed fraud” by “creating, procuring and submitting” a fraudulent DNA test in a child support case to deny he fathered a girlfriend’s child.

“If we need to open it back up, then we will,” Tindell said. “This might be the impetus to get it going again. We will consult with the district attorney’s office and look at the status of the case and make a determination. There is nothing to hide here.”

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation handles independent investigations into criminal wrongdoing by police and other matters, including police shootings. MBI operates under the umbrella of the MDPS, which Tindell heads.

Schloegel issued the ruling in January after a two-day trial in a child support lawsuit filed against Taylor by the Mississippi Department of Human Services. A co-petitioner in the lawsuit was Taylor’s longtime girlfriend, Branissa Stroud, the child’s mother. The suit was filed in Hancock County Chancery Court.

In addition to finding that Taylor committed fraud during the child support litigation, Schloegel found that Taylor repeatedly and consistently lied under oath about various matters, including that he created the fake DNA test results that identified someone other than himself as the child’s father.

A subsequent test confirmed Taylor as the child’s father.

DA’s office weighs in

The Sun Herald reached out to the district attorney’s office for Harrison, Hancock and Stones counties Thursday to find out what, if anything, is being done in the aftermath of the Chancery Court ruling in January.

Assistant District Attorney Matthew Burrell said that the district attorney’s office referred information in the case to Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation for the independent criminal investigation in June 2022. That referral was made after the Sun Herald first reported about the allegations.

“That’s up to them (MBI and the AG) on how they are proceeding with that,” Burrell said.

The district attorney’s office did send out a report to Mississippi Coast police chiefs and sheriffs after Schloegel’s ruling to let them know about Taylor’s actions and what the judge found for a Brady disclosure to defense attorneys in state cases that Taylor was involved in as a law enforcement officer.

Taylor had already been included in a Brady disclosure on federal cases that he was involved in. A Brady disclosure requires prosecutors to disclose material evidence favorable to the defendant and that includes evidence that affects their credibility.

In Taylor’s case, that would include information about how a judge found that Taylor committed fraud and repeatedly lied under oath during a trial, so that defense attorneys can use that information to help their clients.

Stroud’s attorney, Michael Holleman, said Friday he would welcome a new, thorough, independent investigation, unlike the one conducted initially in the case.

“When Mr. Taylor testified in the Chancery Court hearing that it was Ms. Stroud that gave him the fake DNA test, we were able to prove beyond a doubt, with corroborating evidence, that he (Taylor) was lying,” Holleman said.

“Had MBI confronted Ms. Stroud with the accusation, she could have proven the same to MBI,” he added Friday. “This was not a serious investigation in my opinion. It was not aimed at getting to the truth of the matter. If it had been, then MBI would have reviewed the same evidence and reached the same conclusion that Judge Schloegel did.”

The lead MBI investigator for the first independent investigation by MBI, Shelby Smith, retired shortly after investigation began.

During Smith’s investigation, Holleman said Smith told him the MBI investigation began after a tip from Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers instead of the district attorneys’ office.

Another investigation, but no charges

Taylor was first investigated for wrongdoing when he was serving as longtime supervisory agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Gulfport.

The federal investigation, conducted by now-retired federal investigator Donald Smith in the inspector general’s office for HSI, centered around allegations of fraud in the child paternity case and other maters, including allegations that Taylor went to work for another law enforcement agency while still employed by HSI.

During that probe, Smith told Stroud’s attorney that Taylor had failed a lie detector test administered by federal authorities over the alleged fraud and other matters. The investigator asked the U.S. Attorney’s Office to pursue criminal charges against Taylor, but they declined.

Taylor was forced out of his job at HSI as a result of the investigation there and went to work as commander of narcotics at the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department. He was forced out of that job after the initial Sun Herald report on the case. Taylor now runs Securitran, a business that transports cash and marijuana in the state.

During the federal investigation in 2021, the HSI investigator got in touch with Stroud and Holleman said to tell him about his investigation and to set up a time to interview Stroud about the allegations.

Stroud told Taylor the federal investigator had called to do an interview with her over the wrongdoing, the records say, but Taylor told her not to meet with him, that she didn’t have to and there was nothing he could do about it.

In Schloegel’s January ruling, she addressed Taylor’s actions when it came to telling Stroud not to talk to a federal investigator investigating him for wrongdoing.

“Telling Ms. Stroud not to speak with a Homeland Security investigator, who is investigating whether Taylor committed fraud, may have been attempted obstruction of justice,” Schloegel said in her January ruling.

Since the report on Schloegel’s ruling, the Sun Herald has received calls from various law enforcement officers angry over the lack of criminal action against Taylor.

“This is what gives law enforcement a bad name,” one of the officers said.

Prior to reports about the wrongdoing, Taylor was highly regarded in the law enforcement community, even giving a eulogy at the funeral of a Hancock County sheriff’s deputy killed in the line of duty.

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