Prosecutor says no indictment in Sandra Bland jail death

The grand jury will reconvene again sometime in January.

Bland was arrested by state trooper Brian Encinia in mid-July after a routine traffic stop turned confrontational. She can be heard saying that the trooper slammed her head to the ground and that she could not hear.

Bland spent three days in jail after she was unable to pay the US$500 bail. A confrontation between Bland and the officers followed.

Sandra Bland died in the Waller County Jail in Texas in the summer of 2014.

“The entire reasoning behind that”, he said, “is to hopefully divert individuals from the criminal justice system into treatment or a more appropriate setting where they might actually receive treatment in lieu of just sitting in the county jail as punishment for a crime”.

Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis, who appointed five special prosecutors to handle the Bland case, has said there is nothing in that investigation “that shows anything happened but she killed herself”.

But Jordan said the case is not over.

Waller County DA Elton Mathis (center) with former prosecutor Lewis White (l) and attorney Darrell Jorden (r).

The objective is to act as a buffer between prosecutors and the public and grand juries are meant to act as independent investigators with the power to seek additional evidence. Authorities said she hanged herself with a plastic trash bag… The circumstances surrounding her death have sparked a number of protests from members of the Black Lives Matter movement. Despite video evidence showing a display of excessive force from the arresting officer, the case now remains at a standstill.

During a news conference in Chicago on Monday, Bland’s mother, Geneva Reed-Veal, said, “Now we’re going to go through Christmas now and Sandy’s not here”.

To dispel rumors that she was dead when she arrived at jail, county authorities released video in July showing her walking into the facility unaided. Three days later she was found dead.

State officials ruled Bland’s death a suicide. Dealing poorly with an increasingly agitated Bland – whom he pulled over for the most minor of traffic violations (failing to signal a lane change) – Encinia seemed to do everything in his power to ramp up the situation.