The family filed the civil suit after jailers found Bland dead in her cell three days after her arrest for failing to use her turning signal.
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The family of Sandra Bland has reached a $1.9 million settlement in their wrongful death lawsuit, the family’s lawyer told CNN on Thursday.
“I believe that this is going to spearhead other people saying no, you don’t get a chance to just give me a couple of dollars”, said Geneva Reed-Veal, about her quest to codify permanent change in the aftermath of her daughter’s death.
Waller County will pay $1.8 million of the settlement and the Texas Department of Public Safety will pay $100,000, though it hasn’t been revealed whether or not the county officially claimed responsibility for the death or simply settled to avoid a trial.
As part of the settlement, he said Waller County has agreed to have an on-duty nurse and EMT at the Waller County Jail 24/7. Dashcam video of the traffic stop showed an escalated confrontation between Bland and Trooper Brian Encinia, who is white. The department said Bland “became argumentative and uncooperative” during the traffic stop, and Encinia wrote in an arrest affidavit that Bland swung her elbows at him and kicked him in the shin.
Her death was classified as a suicide, but activists and Bland’s family question the ruling.
CNN has reached out to Waller County and the Texas Department of Public Safety for comment. The Waller County jail will pay $1.8 million. The Bland family maintains that she was not suffering from depression. The stop grew confrontational, and the trooper, Brian Encinia, ordered her from the auto before forcing her to the ground. Bland reportedly told a second corrections officer that she was upset about her arrest, but both jail officials said she did not appear suicidal or mentally ill.
She said so much good can come of it and she plans to ask God for guidance. She was visiting Texas from her home in IL to apply for a job at Prairie View A&M University, from which she graduated in 2009.
Also, any legislation passed which benefits Waller County must be named in Sandra Bland’s honor.
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A grand jury indicted Encina on a misdemeanor perjury charge in January for writing in an affidavit that he took Bland out of her vehicle “to further conduct a safe traffic investigation”. “Therefore, it is now my decision that you be discharged from the Texas Department of Public Safety effective at 5:00p.m., upon the date you receive this letter, pursuant to the authority vested in me by Section 411.007, Government Code”, McCraw wrote in a letter to Encinia.
