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http://www.wsj.com/articles/trooper-in-sandra-bland-case-is-under-criminal-probe-1437589219
Trooper in Sandra Bland Case Is Under Criminal Probe
Texas district attorney investigating Brian Encinia in arrest of black woman who was found dead in her jail cell days later
The Texas Department of Public Safety has published the full police dashcam video showing the arrest of Sandra Bland, who died three days later in a police cell. Photo/Video: Texas Department of Public Safety
By NATHAN KOPPEL and ANA CAMPOY
Updated July 22, 2015 7:16 p.m. ET
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A Texas district attorney said Wednesday that he has opened a criminal investigation into the arrest of Sandra Bland, the black woman who was pulled over and taken into custody after a traffic stop this month and was found dead in a jail cell three days later.
Ms. Bland, 28 years old, was arrested for allegedly assaulting a public servant on July 10, after she was pulled over by Texas highway patrol trooper Brian Encinia for allegedly failing to signal that she was changing lanes in Waller County, about 60 miles northwest of Houston.
A dash-cam video of the arrest released Tuesday showed tensions quickly escalated after the stop, with Ms. Bland becoming angry at being pulled over for a minor violation and Mr. Encinia threatening to use what appeared to be a stun gun on her if she didn’t exit the vehicle.
In an interview Wednesday, Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis said he is investigating whether Mr. Encinia violated any criminal laws. “I didn’t like what I saw when I saw the video of the trooper’s actions, but I’ll reserve judgment,” Mr. Mathis said.
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The family of Sandra Bland, who allegedly hanged herself in a police cell, have called for a Justice Department probe, and an independent autopsy has been ordered.
The Texas Department of Public Safety didn’t respond to a request for comment about the investigation, and the trooper couldn’t be located. It wasn’t clear if he had a lawyer.
Mr. Encinia, 30, has been “removed from street duty” pending investigation, Steven McCraw, the department’s director, said Tuesday. The agency earlier said Mr. Encinia was assigned administrative responsibilities.
In an arrest affidavit prepared by Mr. Encinia, which was released Tuesday by the county district attorney’s office, he said Ms. Bland was “combative and uncooperative” and swung her elbows at him. He didn’t mention threatening to use his stun gun.
It wasn’t clear what, if any, charges Mr. Encinia could face as a result of a probe. Susan Klein, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law, said that while Mr. Encinia might have exhibited poor judgment during the arrest, she had seen no evidence to indicate he violated a criminal law.
Ms. Bland was found dead in a Hempstead, Texas, jail cell on July 13. She was still in custody three days after her arrest because she hadn’t posted bail, set at $5,000, the county sheriff’s office said.
Authorities initially ruled her death a suicide, saying she appeared to have hanged herself.
Protesters gathered this week outside the jail in Waller County, Texas, where Sandra Bland, 28, was found dead in her cell July 13. ENLARGE
Protesters gathered this week outside the jail in Waller County, Texas, where Sandra Bland, 28, was found dead in her cell July 13. PHOTO: KAREN WARREN/HOUSTON CHRONICLE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
The county district attorney’s office late Wednesday released a “suicide assessment” of Ms. Bland when she was booked into jail. According to the one-page form, Ms. Bland allegedly reported having attempted suicide by taking pills earlier this year after she lost a baby. Still, the form said that neither the arresting officer nor any other person believed Ms. Bland was a suicide risk.
Her family and friends have sharply questioned suggestions that she took her own life and have pursued an independent autopsy.
Cannon Lambert, a lawyer who is representing Ms. Bland’s family, said her relatives have returned home to Illinois with her body, and plan to hold a service for her Saturday. Her family “was fortunate enough to fly home with Sandy, who was transported on the same flight,” he said via text message.
Mr. Mathis earlier this week opened a separate probe into the death, which he has said is being treated as a murder investigation. The district attorney said he would conduct a thorough investigation and present the facts to a grand jury in Waller County to determine whether it was a suicide or homicide.
“If it’s a suspicious death, even if we believe it’s a suicide, we’ll take that to a grand jury so that there can be an open and honest discussion about that person’s life,” Mr. Mathis said in an interview Wednesday.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation said it is assisting with the local probe into Ms. Bland’s death and would review the evidence it generates to see if any federal laws were violated.
The Texas Rangers have also launched a state investigation into the case, including Ms. Bland’s treatment in jail as well as the circumstances of her traffic arrest.
Jail staff found Ms. Bland hanging from a privacy partition in her cell, according to Waller County Sheriff R. Glenn Smith. Earlier this week, he told reporters that evidence indicates Ms. Bland appeared to have used a plastic trash liner to hang herself. The sheriff said his office would work on improving jail conditions and had removed plastic trash liners from all cells.
A woman places flowers Tuesday at a memorial for Sandra Bland near Prairie View A&M University in Texas.
A woman places flowers Tuesday at a memorial for Sandra Bland near Prairie View A&M University in Texas. PHOTO: PAT SULLIVAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
A special state inspection of Waller County Jail three days after Ms. Bland’s death revealed that staff failed to check on inmates at least once an hour, as mandated by jail policies.
The Texas Commission on Jail Standards, which conducted the probe, also found that county officials didn’t have any documentation proving that jailers completed required training on how to identify and handle inmates who are mentally disabled or potentially suicidal.
In separate inspections over the past five years, the commission found several infractions at the jail, from missing fire and kitchen inspections to failing to secure doors, allowing an inmate to escape.
The jail had also failed to conduct hourly face-to-face observations once before, in November 2012, according to an inspection report.
The county sheriff’s office said last week that it had no reason to believe the infractions cited by the Texas jail agency “had any part in the death of Ms. Bland.”
The case has generated a passionate response on social media, underscoring the newly charged scrutiny of police conduct involving minorities, nearly one year after the shooting death of a young black man by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., ignited racial tension and rioting.
Ms. Bland had been part of that social conversation earlier this year, posting on Facebook a series of videos titled “Sandy Speaks” expressing her views on alleged police misconduct and other issues affecting African-Americans.
The Chicago-area native, who had graduated from Texas’ Prairie View A&M University in 2009, had moved to Illinois but was returning to the Texas school, which had offered her a job, when she was arrested.
“She was elated and making plans to be here for a while,” said LaVaughn Mosley, a friend and mentor of Ms. Bland’s in Texas, adding that she was interested in pursuing a master’s degree at the school related to nutrition, a field she had long been interested in.
“This was not characteristic of someone who wanted to kill herself,” he said.
Mr. Mosley added that he met Ms. Bland about a decade ago, when she started attending Prairie View A&M and worked with him at a 4-H summer camp for inner city youth. He described her as having a deep passion for social justice and issues of racial inequality.
Mr. Mosley said that Ms. Bland had called him from jail on the day of the arrest and explained that she wouldn’t be able to see a judge until the following day.
“She said ‘I was arrested. It was a traffic stop and the officer said I assaulted him, and I didn’t,’ ” Mr. Mosley recalled.
That Saturday, Mr. Mosley said he missed two calls from Ms. Bland. He subsequently called the jail and was told her bond had been set at $5,000.
The dash-cam video of the arrest released Tuesday inflamed tensions surrounding the case, which had initially focused more on the circumstances of Ms. Bland’s death.
The footage shows Mr. Encinia asking Ms. Bland to extinguish a cigarette, and Ms. Bland questioning his right to request that. It then shows Mr. Encinia demanding that she get out of the car, and threatening her with what looked to be a stun gun if she didn’t comply. She eventually exits the car.
Off camera, the two continue to exchange words and Ms. Bland complains that she has been roughly taken to the ground. She adds that she cannot wait to take him to court.
Adding to the debate over the video, some of those who initially viewed it online noticed it appeared to have been edited because it showed the same car and person passing several times. A Department of Public Safety spokesman said the video had not been edited but was “affected in the upload.” The agency subsequently posted a new version Wednesday that didn’t have the glitches.
Mr. Encinia joined the Department of Public safety in January 2014, an agency spokesman said. Previously, he had served as a volunteer at the Brenham, Texas, fire department for four years, according to Brenham Fire Chief Ricky Boeker.
“He was an excellent firefighter,” Mr. Boeker said. “He was well liked, and we did not have any issues with him.”
Texas state Sen. Royce West, center, speaks, flanked by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, second from left, during a news conference Tuesday following a meeting related to Ms. Bland’s death.
Texas state Sen. Royce West, center, speaks, flanked by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, second from left, during a news conference Tuesday following a meeting related to Ms. Bland’s death. PHOTO: PAT SULLIVAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Texas officials, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and several Texas state senators, met Tuesday with Ms. Bland’s family and their lawyer at Prairie View A&M.
State Sen. Royce West, a Democrat who attended the meeting, said he was troubled by the arrest. “Sandra Bland didn’t deserve to be taken into custody,” he said.
Mr. Patrick, a Republican, said no conclusions could be reached about the arrest or Ms. Bland’s subsequent death in jail until all the facts are known.
“We are going to take very careful steps so there is no rush to judgment,” he said.
—Dan Frosch contributed to this article.
Write to Nathan Koppel at nathan.koppel@wsj.com and Ana Campoy at ana.campoy@wsj.com
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