Sandra Bland’s jail death: no indictments against police

It also says she was treated with “courtesy and respect” and “was provided benefits and accommodations beyond what the law and County policies required”. Lambert talks to reporters as Bland’s sisters, standing from left, Shante Needham, Sharon Bland, and Sierra Cole join mother Geneva Reed-Veal, center, and sister Sharon Cooper, left.

“There are other issues that the grand jury is still considering and they will take up those issues when we return next month”.

On July 10, Bland was driving from IL to her alma mater, Prairie View A&M University, where she had gotten a new job, when she was pulled over by a state trooper for failing to use a turn signal in Prairie View, northwest of Houston.

Bland was handcuffed after the arrest and taken to county jail, where she died three days later.

An autopsy found that she died by asphyxiation and hanged herself with a plastic bag from a partition in her cell. “We’ve asked before to speak with them and we’ll ask again”.

It’s not clear what charges the grand jury might consider when it reconvenes. County officials said they themselves received death threats.

Bland was an activist in the Black Lives Matter movement, which grew out of protests sparked by the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and cases such as that of Freddie Gray, who sustained a fatal spinal injury in a Baltimore police van. 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.

“All charges are under consideration”, he said, declining to elaborate. The proceedings are held in secret.

Mr Mathis has said there is nothing in that investigation “that shows anything happened but she killed herself”.

In response to the grand jury’s decision, special prosecutor Darrell Jordan told press that “the case is still open”. A grand jury can still indict Encinia for inciting the traffic stop that led to Bland’s arrest and, ultimately, her death.

Brandon Wood, executive director of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, told the paper that the thorough screening gauges the risk of inmate suicide and helps identify medical and mental impairments.

In August, Bland’s family filed an unlawful death suit against Encinia and several other members of the Waller County Sheriff’s office.

The stop quickly escalated into an argument over Bland’s cigarette that ended with Encinia pulling Bland out of the vehicle and arresting her-yet that flies in the face of a recent Supreme Court ruling that states that routine traffic stops can’t be extended unless there’s evidence that the driver has committed another crime, or there’s a safety issue in play. It also shows jailers interacting with her in the following days.