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. The exchange was caught on- and off-camera-at one point, Bland is heard screaming that her head was knocked to the ground and that Encinia is hurting her-and continued to raise questions about racial profiling by law enforcement. She was not placed under suicide watch.
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According to Chron.com, the settlement calls for Waller County to pay $1.8 million and the Texas Department of Public Safety to pay another $100,000.
According to the family’s attorney, Cannon Lambert, the settlement also stipulates that the county jail have a nurse or emergency medical technician on duty at all times and install electronic sensors to ensure that guards are checking on detainees. And she vowed to make sure they are carried out.
“I’m more excited about that piece being the justice piece, because there’s never an amount you can put on your child”, said Reed-Veal. Yes, you’re doing the right things at intake.
“Right now, my joy is in the fact that there will be real changes from here forward”, Bland’s mother, Geneva Reed-Veal, told KTRK.
The settlement comes more than a year after the 28-year-old’s death.
As for her plans in the immediate future, she’s taking her message on the road this weekend as she hits the campaign trail with Hillary Clinton. She was initially pulled over by state Trooper Brian Encinia for failing to signal a lane change.
The two-page “special inspection report” from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards does not mention Bland by name, but it was filed on July 16, 2015, three days after Bland’s body was found in her cell.
Bland graduated from the historically black college in 2009. Police stated she committed suicide, but her family disputes that claim. He arrested her without explaining to her why.
In the video, Encinia told Bland she was under arrest.
A grand jury decided not to charge anyone at the jail in Bland’s death, but Encinia ultimately was charged with perjury and fired.
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A plastic garbage bag was allegedly used as a ligature by tying it to a partition to a bathroom in the cell. She said she remained skeptical about the details of what happened to Bland and that she did not believe she would have killed herself. Encinia, who was sacked from his job by the Texas Department of Public Safety, pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge of perjury in March. He plead not guilty in May.
