A Department of Justice (DOJ) employee took advantage of his government position to tamper with crucial evidence relating to his own capital murder case after he drugged his pregnant girlfriend in an attempt to give her an abortion. The IT staffer, Justin Banta, 38, was convicted this week after he slipped a drug into his girlfriend’s drink in a Texas coffee shop last October. “The victim reported that her boyfriend intentionally added ‘Pan C,’ (commonly known as the abortion drug) to her drink in order to force her to have an abortion without her knowledge or consent,” police said. Banta’s girlfriend wanted to keep the baby, despite Banta asking to cover the cost of an abortion and urging her against it. In Oct. 2024, when she was six-weeks pregnant, she learned that the baby was healthy. But later that day, Banta drugged her. “The next day, the victim stated she began to suffer from extreme fatigue and heavy bleeding, prompting her to visit the emergency room,” according to the local sheriff’s office. Texas has some of the country’s most restrictive abortion laws, banning all abortions except in serious medical circumstances. After Banta’s girlfriend’s miscarriage, he allegedly used his position in the DOJ’s IT department to access his confiscated cell phone remotely and performing a “reset” to delete crucial case evidence. He has also been charged with tampering with the evidence.
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