NJ Cop Charged In Killing Of Baby Freed From Jail: Prosecutor

MERCER COUNTY, NJ — A Mercer County police officer who was charged in the killing of his infant daughter in 2018 was released from county jail in January after a judge ruled in his favor over seized cell phones, the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office confirmed Wednesday.

Casey DeBlasio, a spokesperson for the Prosecutor's Office, confirmed to Patch that Daniel Bannister was released from custody after Judge Darlene Perekstra on Jan. 19 granted his motion and "ordered his release on Level III monitoring with restrictions in place regarding supervised contact with children."

Bannister, a suspended police officer in Ewing Township, is charged with murder in the death of his 3-month-old daughter, Hailey Rose Bannister, in 2018. He was arrested in the summer of 2019 and had been jailed since.

His wife, Catherine Bannister, a former teacher at a charter school in Trenton, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child. It's unclear whether she is in custody.

Perekstra had earlier granted Bannister’s motion to suppress information obtained from his cell phones, the prosecutor's office said. The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office has appealed this decision to the state’s Appellate Division.

Bannister’s attorney Jeffrey G. Garrigan told NJ.com that the judge ruled that police did not have probable cause of criminality to access the phone.

The incident happened on Dec. 5, 2018. Ewing Township Emergency Medical Services responded to the Bannister home after receiving a 911 call for an unresponsive baby that had difficulty breathing.

Emergency medical technicians found the baby not breathing and in cardiac arrest, according to the prosecutor's office. Hailey Bannister died on Dec. 11 after spending several days in the hospital.

An autopsy conducted by the Middlesex County Medical Examiner's Office concluded that Hailey Bannister's death was a homicide and involved complications from blunt impact trauma of the head.

Bannister was suspended from the Ewing police force that December.

The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office said Hailey suffered an “ongoing pattern of abuse” and died after suffering skull fractures, broken ribs and bleeding in her brain.

In an affidavit, the Prosecutor’s Office said that Bannister inflicted the injuries and that his wife knew about it and failed to report him to authorities.

In the days following Hailey’s death, Catherine told investigators that Hailey was a "cranky baby" and that "Daniel had a hard time bonding with her."

Read More: Shocking Details Describe Abuse By NJ Cop Accused Of Killing Baby

Shock, Outrage After NJ Cop, Wife Charged In Baby's Death

Thank you for reading. Have a correction or news tip? Email sarah.salvadore@patch.com

Get breaking news alerts on your phone with our app. Download here. Sign up to get Patch emails so you don't miss out on local and statewide news.