Months after her death, an attorney for the family of Sandra Bland has reached a settlement in the wrongful death civil suit they filed after her controversial demise. A grand jury indicted Trooper Brian Encinia on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016, with the misdemeanor charge.
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Bland, 28, was found dead in her jail cell on July 13, 2015. The medical examiner ruled her death a suicide, and the grand jury decided not to charge anyone at the Waller County jail in the death of Sandra Bland.
The family of Sandra Bland has tentatively agreed to a $1.9 million settlement in their federal wrongful death lawsuit against Waller County and the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The Texas Department of Public Safety and the Waller County Sheriff’s office were not immediately available for comment.
The settlement, however, will change how the jail operates.
Video from the traffic stop shows Encinia drawing his stun gun and telling Bland, “I will light you up!”
A judge ordered the FBI to release a report of the Texas Rangers’ investigation into Bland’s death to the family earlier this year.
August 26: Documents obtained by The Associated Press show that two of Bland’s jailers were quietly moved to other jobs two months after her death.
In the settlement, the Department of Public Safety, whose liability is capped by state statutes, will pay $100,000 and the jail will pay $1.8 million. 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. 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.
Lambert says authorities also say they will solicit new state legislation to fund revised booking and intake training, which they say will be named for Bland if it is passed.
Bland was arrested during a traffic stop that turned confrontational.
Encinia said in an affidavit that after handcuffing her for becoming combative, she swung her elbows at him and kicked him in his right shin.
The officer radioed for backup and moments later drew his Taser and ordered her to get out of the vehicle “or I will light you up”.
Simmons also said the settlement amount is confidential until it is approved and will not involve any county money “other than a modest $1,000 deductible”.
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“This is the beginning, not the end”, he said, adding that Ms Bland’s mother, Geneva Reed-Veal, had insisted jail reform be included in the settlement.
