Cop Who Allegedly Killed His 3-Month-Old Child Released From Jail

A New Jersey police officer accused of killing his infant daughter back in 2018 has been released from jail after a judge ruled that evidence in the case was obtained without probable cause.

Daniel Bannister, of Ewing, was released from a Mercer County jail on Jan. 19, NJ.com reported.

The former Ewing Police Department officer spent a total of two-and-a-half years behind bars in protective custody after he was charged with murder and endangering the welfare of a child over the death of his 3-month-old daughter, Hailey Bannister.

Hailey, who died at a hospital in New Brunswick six days after going into cardiac arrest on Dec. 5, 2018, was found to have suffered nine skull fractures, broken ribs and brain bleeding, according to the outlet.

The child's death was ruled a homicide after the Middlesex County Medical Examiner's Office determined her cause of death to be blunt impact trauma to the head in May 2019.

Daniel, who was suspended from the force following his daughter's death, had inflicted the injuries, prosecutors alleged.

His wife, Catherine Bannister, a former kindergarten teacher in Trenton, was also accused of failing to report Daniel's abuse despite knowing about it.

Both adults were arrested in 2019, but Catherine was freed from jail shortly after she was apprehended, while Daniel was released last month.

Daniel's release reportedly followed Mercer County Judge Darlene Pereksta's decision to suppress cell phone evidence in the case.

Detectives had confiscated the Bannisters' cell phones early in the investigation and applied for a warrant to examine the devices' calls and texts, court documents showed. The phones revealed "extensive" communication about Daniel allegedly abusing Hailey, which led to the charges against the couple filed in July 2019.

However, Pereksta ruled last September that detectives had no probable cause of criminality to access the devices, Daniel's attorney, Jeffrey G. Garrigan, said.

Other issues might have weakened the case as well, the lawyer added. Among them were the submitted reports from medical experts that said Hailey was ill from birth and died of natural causes, not child abuse.

Another possible issue was that the child abuse expert that investigators used in the case, Dr. Gladibel Medina, was recently deemed unreliable in an unrelated case in Middlesex County.

Details of that case were unclear, but the New Jersey Supreme Court last week found fault with Medina’s testimony in another case that involved a nanny in Somerset County, accused of breaking the legs of a child in her care.

In the Bannisters' case, a detective wrote in an affidavit of probable cause that Medina reviewed Hailey's medical records and identified Nov. 23, 2018, as the day the newborn suffered her fatal injuries due to her vomiting.

Detectives then compared the data to the couple's phones and found information on Catherine's device about the vomiting. Additionally, there was information about Daniel being the sole adult caregiver to Hailey that morning and afternoon.

Following the developments, Pereksta revisited Daniel's pretrial detention status and freed him from jail, according to Garrigan.

The Mercer County Prosecutor's Office declined to comment on Garrigan's assessment of the case but confirmed that Daniel was released on level III monitoring — the highest level in the state — with restrictions in place regarding supervised contact with children.

The office has also appealed Pereksta's decision to the state's Appellate Division, with oral arguments scheduled to commence in late March, said Garrigan.