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Sandra Bland’s Family Is Said to Settle $1.9 Million Civil Suit Sandra Bland’s Family Settles $1.9 Million Civil Suit, Lawyer Says
(about 2 hours later)
The family of Sandra Bland, the woman who Texas officials said committed suicide in jail last year after her arrest during a traffic stop, reached a $1.9 million settlement in their wrongful death civil suit, according to the family’s lawyer. The family of Sandra Bland, the woman who Texas officials said committed suicide in jail last year after her arrest during a traffic stop, reached a $1.9 million settlement in their wrongful death civil suit, the family’s lawyer said on Thursday.
Local television stations quoted the lawyer, Cannon Lambert, as saying that the final details of the settlement had been concluded on Wednesday night. They include making changes in jail procedures and providing damages for the family. Mr. Lambert could not immediately be reached for comment early on Thursday at his Chicago office. The lawyer, Cannon Lambert, said the final details of the settlement had been concluded on Wednesday night. They include making changes in jail procedures and providing damages for the family.
The settlement requires the Waller County jail, where Ms. Bland’s body was found in a cell in July 2015, to pay $1.8 million of the settlement, according to KTRK. The settlement requires the Waller County jail, where Ms. Bland’s body was found in a cell in July 2015, to pay $1.8 million of the settlement. The Texas Department of Public Safety will pay $100,000, the maximum allowed by law, Mr. Lambert said.
As a condition of the settlement, Ms. Bland’s mother said, the jail must provide emergency nurses for all shifts; use automated electronic sensors to ensure accurate and timely cell checks; and actively seek the passage of additional state funds for jail intaking, inmate screening, training and additional jail support, the report said. Messages left at the department, the jail and the sheriff’s office were not returned on Thursday morning after Mr. Lambert’s announcement of the civil settlement was reported by KTRK.
The Texas Department of Public Safety will pay $100,000, the report said. Messages left at the department and at the jail early on Thursday were not immediately returned. A spokeswoman at the Texas attorney general’s office declined to comment early on Thursday but said a statement was being prepared.
Mr. Lambert said there were also non-financial conditions of the settlement, including a requirement for sensors to be used at the jail to ensure that detainee checks are done accurately and cannot be falsified. He said the jail agreed to ensure there was a duty nurse or emergency medical technician on all shifts.
In addition, according to Mr. Lambert, the Waller County judge, Carbett J. Duhon III, the region’s chief executive officer, has agreed to push for more funding to improve booking, training and other jail measures through legislation named for Ms. Bland.
“These are the types of things you never see,” in a settlement of this type, Mr. Lambert said.
The settlement was the culmination of the federal lawsuit that Geneva Reed-Veal, Ms. Bland’s mother, had filed in August, 2015, contending that Ms. Bland should not have been arrested and that she was later held in dangerous conditions without proper supervision.
Mr. Lambert said that Ms. Reed-Veal had pushed for the non-financial conditions because she wanted to help other mothers who were going through the same circumstances. “She has always understood the greater context,” he said.
“She is very, very happy and she feels like her efforts have been vindicated,” Mr. Lambert said. “She understands this is the beginning, not the end. She is going to pursue that legislation that we talked about and fighting for people who lose their loved ones in custody.”
Ms. Bland was in Texas to take a job at her alma mater, Prairie View A&M University, a historically black institution in East Texas, when she was pulled over by a Texas state trooper, Brian T. Encinia, on July 10.Ms. Bland was in Texas to take a job at her alma mater, Prairie View A&M University, a historically black institution in East Texas, when she was pulled over by a Texas state trooper, Brian T. Encinia, on July 10.
A dashcam video that was later released showed the mundane stop escalating rapidly when Trooper Encinia, who is white, asked Ms. Bland, who was African-American, to extinguish a cigarette, and she declined.A dashcam video that was later released showed the mundane stop escalating rapidly when Trooper Encinia, who is white, asked Ms. Bland, who was African-American, to extinguish a cigarette, and she declined.
Trooper Encinia ordered her out of the car, threatened her with a stun gun and forcefully arrested her.Trooper Encinia ordered her out of the car, threatened her with a stun gun and forcefully arrested her.
On July 11, Ms. Bland, 28, told her siblings in Illinois that she had been arrested on a felony charge of assaulting a public servant. On July 13, Ms. Bland’s family was informed by the authorities in Waller County that she had died in her jail cell that morning, apparently in a suicide.On July 11, Ms. Bland, 28, told her siblings in Illinois that she had been arrested on a felony charge of assaulting a public servant. On July 13, Ms. Bland’s family was informed by the authorities in Waller County that she had died in her jail cell that morning, apparently in a suicide.
Friends and relatives were skeptical and called for an independent autopsy. In August 2015, Geneva Reed-Veal, Ms. Bland’s mother, filed the federal lawsuit contending that Ms. Bland should not have been arrested and that she was later held in dangerous conditions without proper supervision. But friends and family were skeptical and called for an independent autopsy.