Former federal agent and longtime Mississippi law enforcement officer Benjamin “Ben” Taylor lied in trial testimony and “committed fraud” by “creating, procuring, and submitting” a fraudulent DNA test in a child support case to deny he fathered a girlfriend’s child, Chancery Judge Jennifer Schloegel has ruled.
Taylor had the fraudulent DNA test results submitted in a Hancock County Chancery Court case involving himself and his former longtime girlfriend and the mother of the child, Branissa Stroud. Taylor, who was married at the time, is going through a divorce.
“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 issuing the ruling.
In the 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.