No Indictment in Jail Cell Death of Sandra Bland

Dashcam video from his auto showed Encinia at one point holding a stun gun and yelling at Bland, “I will light you up!” after she refuses to get out of her vehicle.

Bland died three days later at the Waller County jail after she was unable to raise $500 bond.

“We’re all upset. We’re upset, and we’re disappointed, and that’s what we feel collectively as a family”.

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. In July, Waller County Jail was cited by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards for substandard training in how to handle potentially suicidal inmates, and for failing to personally observe an inmate at least once per hour. And she was arrested, we’re told for “kicking” Encina.

On Monday, a grand jury in Waller County, Texas declined to indict any of the employees at the country jail where Sandra Bland was found hanging in a cell from a trash bag.

Sandra Bland was pulled over on 10 July by a Texas state trooper after allegedly making an improper lane change. The Waller County Sheriff’s Office said the 28-year-old woman died “from what appears to be self-inflicted asphyxiation”, as NBC News originally reported. The jury did not reach a decision regarding Brian Encinia, the officer responsible for Bland’s arrest.

The decision not to bring any charges relating to Bland’s death likely comes as a blow to the woman’s family members, who have maintained that she was excited about starting a new job and wouldn’t have taken her own life.

The family’s lawyers have been unable to access evidence from the secret grand jury proceedings, including a report from a Texas Rangers investigation, the AP reports.

The grand jury will return to work in January to consider charges against Encinia.

Bland’s death sparked national outrage and widespread skepticism about the official account that she killed herself in her cell. “She got that opportunity and somewhere between a two- to three- day period, something frightful happened to her”, Reed-Veal continued.

The trooper has been on administrative leave since Bland’s death, according to the Washington Post. A judge last week set a January 2017 trial date in that case. While Waller County prosecutors and an outside forensic science inquiry stated that the death was self-inflicted, the Bland family continue to seek answers.

Her death came amid increasing scrutiny across the nation over police treatment of African-Americans after the deaths of unarmed African-Americans by police, including Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and Eric Garner. “They found that he violated internal procedures, the Department’s courtesy policy basically”, Smith says.