A U.S. Justice Department employee was booked in Parker County jail Friday after he was accused of slipping an abortion pill into his pregnant girlfriend’s drink in what authorities described as an attempt to terminate her pregnancy without her knowledge.
In mid-October, Justin Banta met with the woman — then six weeks pregnant — at a coffee shop in Burleson, where she told him she suspected he had “secretly slipped abortion-inducing pills” into her drink without her knowledge or consent, according to a Parker County sheriff’s office news release and an arrest-warrant affidavit obtained by The Dallas Morning News.
The woman miscarried days later, the affidavit says.
Banta’s attorney, Michael Heiskell, disputed the allegations against Banta, saying the arrest was the result of a dating relationship that “went awry.”
“He is innocent of these accusations,” Heiskell said in an interview Monday after the sheriff’s office issued the release. “We intend to litigate this in court and at the end of the day, we expect him to be exonerated of these charges and lies against him.”
Banta, 38, faces one count of tampering with physical evidence with intent to impair an investigation — which stems from allegations he remotely wiped data from his phone after providing it to authorities — and one count of capital murder. He was booked into Parker County jail Friday and posted bond the same day, according to jail records.
Banta works in information technology. The Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the Department of Justice, employs Banta as a network istration section chief for its Grand Prairie Office Complex, according to Donald Murphy, an agency spokesperson.
The woman and Banta had dated for about a month before she discovered she was pregnant, an officer wrote in the affidavit. Banta had “encouraged” the woman to get an abortion, purchasing abortion pills online for her to use, the affidavit says.
The woman told Banta she planned to carry the pregnancy to term. Prior to their meeting at the coffee shop, she had undergone a sonogram and was told that the baby appeared to be healthy, the affidavit says.
The two had arranged to meet at the coffee shop to discuss the pregnancy further. Banta had already purchased the woman a drink before she arrived. Investigators reviewed surveillance footage captured at the coffee shop showing her consuming the drink, the affidavit says.
After the coffee shop meeting, the woman suffered from “extreme fatigue and heavy bleeding,” prompting her to visit an emergency room, Parker County Deputy Danie Huffman, a sheriff’s office spokesperson, said in the release.
The woman miscarried on Oct. 19 and filed a report with Benbrook police after suspecting Banta had spiked her drink at the coffee shop, the affidavit says.
Heiskell said Banta has “fully cooperated” with the investigation, including participating in two voluntary interviews with the Parker County sheriff’s office and handing over his phone for examination.
Investigators allege that Banta remotely reset his phone after turning it over to authorities, the affidavit says. A Texas Ranger on the case then asked a judge to issue a preservation order directing Google to retain the phone’s data so it could be recovered.
A forensic analyst reviewed the phone’s data and did not find evidence of a remote wipe command but noted “irregularities” in the device’s activity, the affidavit says.
The analyst told authorities the data contained on the phone was tampered with, the affidavit says.
Murphy, the Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson, declined to comment on Banta’s arrest, saying the agency does not comment on personnel matters.
In a statement, the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ director said the agency thoroughly investigates “credible information” accusing employees of misconduct.
“I will use every authority, every tool and every ounce of influence I have to ensure those individuals are held able — and will do so publicly to send a clear message — if you dishonor the uniform, you will be held able. Full stop,” the agency’s director, William Marshall III, said in the statement to The News.