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.
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Bland was pulled over in her vehicle on July 10th, 2015, by then-state trooper Brian Encinia for failing to signal a lane change in Waller County, northwest of Houston. Her death was ruled a suicide.
Attorneys representing the family of Sandra Bland say they have reached a tentative settlement in federal wrongful death lawsuit. In addition, The potential settlement must be approved by the Waller County Commissioner’s court, which has not yet occurred. He also said the county “vigorously” denies any fault or wronging in Bland’s death.
The $1.9 million settlement includes a requirement that the jail have a nurse or emergency medical technician on duty 24 hours a day, the family’s Chicago-based attorney, Cannon Lambert, told The Associated Press in an interview at his office.
Bland’s family later sued Waller County and the Texas Department of Public Safety.
A bill named after Bland will also be introduced in the state legislature seeking more funding for local jails and improved training for jail personnel. “I think the non-monetary portion of the settlement is what’s very imperative here”, said Geneva Reed-Veal, Bland’s mother. She was 28. Media around the world picked up the story and it became part of the Black Lives Matter movement, fueled by the traffic stop footage that has been viewed more than 1.5 million times on YouTube.
Her friends and family have maintained she was murdered in jail, and filed the deferral wrongful death suit in August 2015. It names the state trooper who arrested Bland, two guards at the jail, Waller County and the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Bland, 28, was pulled over in her auto on July 10 by then- state trooper Brian Encinia for failing to signal a lane change in Waller County, about 50 miles northwest of Houston.
Bland was stopped by DPS Trooper Brian Encinia in July 2015.
Bland said in the video, “I am in my auto”.
Bland, of Naperville, Illinois, was pulled over when she was moving to Texas for a new job at Prairie View A&M University, a historically black school in Prairie View, Texas, from which she graduated in 2009. Encinia alleged that he planned to let Bland go with a written warning before she started becoming confrontational. He plead not guilty in May. However, Encinia was sacked three months after the Public Safety Director promised he would terminate the trooper’s employment.
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They also questioned an autopsy report that described her death as a suicide by hanging.
