Seeking answers, Sandra Bland's family sues trooper, others

HOUSTON - The family of a black woman found dead in a Texas jail three days after a confrontation with a white state trooper filed a wrongful-death lawsuit Tuesday against the officer and other officials, saying it was a last resort after being unable to get enough information about the case.

Sandra Bland, a Chicago-area woman, died by what authorities say was suicide in her Waller County jail cell July 13. Her family and others previously questioned that, and criticized the trooper who stopped her for failing to signal a lane change.

"The bottom line is she never should have been inside the jail cell. Period," Bland's mother, Geneva Reed-Veal, said at a news conference. Reed-Veal, her Bible within reach, said she was confident Bland "knew enough about Jesus" that she wouldn't hang herself, and her feelings as a mother say her daughter didn't. But "anything is possible," she said.

"Now I'm the first one to tell you, if the facts . . . show without a doubt that that was the case, I'll have to be prepared to deal with that," she said.

The lawsuit, with Reed-Veal as plaintiff, seeks unspecified punitive damages "for egregious acts and omissions" by Trooper Brian Encinia, the Texas Department of Public Safety, Waller County, the sheriff's office, and two jail employees.

Bland was in Prairie View, northwest of Houston, when she was stopped July 10 for a traffic infraction. Dashcam video shows the confrontation swiftly escalated after she objected to being told to put out her cigarette. She eventually was arrested for allegedly assaulting the trooper.

The suit contends Encinia falsified the assault allegation to take Bland into custody, that jail personnel failed to keep her safe, and that she was placed in a cell "with a variety of inappropriate items for a jail cell, including a large garbage can, garbage bags, exposed beams, cords, and other items."

An autopsy determined that Bland hanged herself from a partition in the cell with a garbage bag. Her family has previously said she was looking forward to a new job at Prairie View University.

Lawyer Cannon Lambert said the family's own autopsy has been delayed by missing information from authorities, and that information the family received from law enforcement was inconsistent.

"We don't have the gastric content information. We don't have the ligature. We don't have the police reports," he said.

Authorities have released the findings of Bland's autopsy, her arrest affidavit, an initial toxicology report, surveillance video showing her in the jail, her jail intake records, and dash camera video.

The intake records include a questionnaire filled out for Bland that states she had tried to kill herself in the last year by taking pills after losing a baby.

Lambert said the family needs to know what was done to try to help her.