Prosecutor says no indictment in Sandra Bland jail death

Published 10:08 am Tuesday, December 22, 2015

HEMPSTEAD, Texas  — A grand jury decided that neither sheriff’s officials nor jailers committed a crime in the treatment of a black woman who died in a Texas county jail last summer, but has not yet determined whether the state trooper who arrested her should face charges, a prosecutor said.

Prosecutor Darrell Jordan said Monday that the Waller County grand jury will return in January to consider whether to indict the trooper who arrested 28-year-old Sandra Bland in July.

The Chicago-area woman was pulled over July 10 for making an improper lane change. Dashcam video showed the traffic stop quickly became confrontational, with trooper Brian Encinia at one point holding a stun gun and yelling at Bland, “I will light you up!” after she refused to get out of her car.

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Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw has said Encinia — who in June completed a year-long probationary stint as a new trooper and has been on administrative duty since Bland’s death —violated internal policies of professionalism and courtesy.

Bland was taken in handcuffs to the county jail in nearby Hempstead, about 50 miles northwest of Houston, and remained there when she couldn’t raise about $500 for bail.