The Waller County jail is on the hook for $1.8 million of the settlement, the attorney said.
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Sarah Bland was found hanged in her cell by a plastic bag on July 13 while waiting to be bailed out of jail, where she was being held on charges of assaulting an officer during a traffic stop. It is worth noting that $1.8 million is a lot of money for a small Texas county to fork over.
Reed-Veal said that she and her attorneys worked together on their list of demands in the settlement.
“It’s awesome”, Reed-Veal told the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper. “There’s a sense of God’s justice for me”.
Bland’s death also sparked outrage from those who said she never should have been arrested in the first place.
Recent deaths, including Bland’s, have driven the Black Lives Matter movement and started a national conversation about racism and policing. The white state trooper who pulled her over planned on giving her a written warning, but DPS says he changed his mind when Bland became uncooperative and argumentative.
“One thing I had hoped for since beginning of the case was that Sandra’s case would change things for people in rural jails, where the awareness and accountability surrounding what’s happening to them is virtually nonexistent”, United Methodist minister Hannah Bonner told the Chronicle.
“You can step on out now”, Encinia replied.
Tom Rhodes, another attorney representing the Bland family, said the county will also be required to install sensors to ensure cell checks electronically. On the video of the traffic stop, Bland can be heard protesting her arrest, repeatedly using expletives and calling the officer names. She repeatedly asked why. It is an act those close to her question. The stop grew confrontational, and the trooper, Brian Encinia, ordered her from the vehicle before forcing her to the ground. Her family and friends, meantime, said they suspected Bland was murdered in jail and maintain she would not have killed herself. “Force was used to subdue Bland to the ground, to which Bland continued to fight back”. Of that, the Texas Department of Public Safety will pay $100,000. She was reportedly found hanging in her cell, and her death was ruled a suicide.
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What’s more, the settlement stipulates a series of procedure changes at the Texas jail where Bland died, including an around-the-clock nurse, according to these reports.
