Sandra Bland case could go to county grand jury
CHICAGO — The county prosecutor investigating the death of a black woman at a Texas jail days after her arrest during a traffic stop said on Monday outside attorneys will help with the probe, which likely will go to a county grand jury in August.
Sandra Bland, 28, was found hanged in a Waller County Jail cell days after her July 10 arrest following a minor traffic offense, an incident activists have said is yet another example of police brutality toward minorities.
"There are many lingering questions regarding the death of Sandra Bland," Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis told a news conference.
Lewis White, a former prosecutor and a defense attorney, and Houston attorney Darrell Jordan will lead a review committee in asking the "hard questions," Mathis said.
Mathis said the case should go before a Waller County grand jury in August as planned, as long as the Texas Rangers and Federal Bureau of Investigation reports are completed.
Bland, a former Chicago area resident, was pulled over by white Texas state trooper Brian Encinia near Prairie View, Texas, northwest of Houston, for failing to signal a lane change.
The stop escalated into a verbal altercation after Encinia asked Bland to put out a cigarette and she refused. Bland was arrested and charged with assaulting an officer, a felony. Bond was set at $5,000 in a court appearance that Saturday.
Bland was found hanging in her jail cell on the morning of Monday, July 13 with a plastic trash bag around her neck. An autopsy confirmed an initial finding by a medical examiner that Bland's death was a suicide.
Bland's family has acknowledged she had posted on social media about struggling with depression, but has expressed strong doubts she would take her own life.
