Sandra Bland’s family settled their wrongful death lawsuit for $1.9 million and the promise of new jail procedures, according to the family’s lawyer Thursday.
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The Waller County judge will also seek state funding for local jails to improve jail booking and screening. The Waller County Sheriff’s Office has agreed to install automated sensors to assure accurate and timely cell checks at the jail and staff an on-duty nurse around-the-clock, attorney Cannon Lambert told NBC News.
Bland was arrested during a traffic stop. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and has since been fired from DPS.
As of now, Simmons said the settlement had yet to be completed, and still required approval from the Waller County Commissioners Court.
The officer who stopped her, Brian Encinia, was sacked in March after he was indicted for perjury by a grand jury, in connection with statements he gave about the traffic stop, CNN reports. A dashcam video showed him shouting at Bland and failing to answer her when she asked numerous times why she was being arrested.
“The Waller County defendants also emphasise they vigorously deny any fault or wrongdoing, and the potential settlement does not involve any such admissions”, it said in a statement. While the settlement amount of $1.9 million was capped by state statutes, the agency will only be responsible for paying about $100,000.
Reed-Veal said she doesn’t yet know what she’ll do with the settlement money. Bland’s family later sued the county and the Texas Department of Public Safety. Smith said two jailers who spoke with Bland insisted she appeared fine and she was not placed under suicide watch. A medical examiner ruled her death a suicide, but Bland’s family has since refuted that notion. She eventually got out of the auto, and the two moved out of the view of the camera, but Bland could be heard accusing Encinia of kicking her.
Last year, Sandra Bland died in a jail cell after being pulled over for a minor offense – failing to use a turn signal – sparking major outrage.
Bland was stopped by Brian Encinia, a Texas state trooper, in July 2015, reportedly for an improper lane change.
“Waller County has acknowledged some of the things I was concerned about, so others won’t have to go through what Sandy did”, Bland’s mother, Geneva Reed-Veal, told The Chicago Tribune.
She was arrested and taken to the Hempstead jail, located about 60 miles northwest of Houston.
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July 22: A Bland family attorney says an ex-guard said in a deposition he falsified log entries by noting he checked on Bland in the hour before she was found dead in her cell.
