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| Sandra Bland’s Family Settles $1.9 Million Civil Suit, Lawyer Says | Sandra Bland’s Family Settles $1.9 Million Civil Suit, Lawyer Says |
| (about 1 hour 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, the family’s lawyer said on Thursday. | 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. |
| The lawyer, Cannon Lambert, said in a telephone interview that the final details of the settlement had been concluded 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. The Texas Department of Public Safety will pay $100,000, the maximum allowed by law, Mr. Lambert said. | 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. |
| Messages left at the department were not returned after Mr. Lambert’s announcement of the civil settlement was reported early Thursday by KTRK. | |
| After Mr. Lambert’s announcement, a statement from the lawyer representing Waller County, Larry J. Simmons, said that a few details still needed to be worked out in the “potential” settlement agreement and that it needed to be approved by the county commissioner’s court. | |
| “The Waller County defendants also emphasize they vigorously deny any fault or wrongdoing, and the potential settlement does not involve any such admissions,” Mr. Simmons said in the emailed statement. | |
| A spokeswoman at the Texas attorney general’s office declined to comment early on Thursday but said a statement was being prepared. | 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 nonfinancial conditions of the settlement, including a requirement for sensors to be used at the jail to ensure that detainee checks were done accurately and could not 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, agreed to push for more funding to improve booking, training and other jail functions through legislation named for Ms. Bland. | |
| “These are the types of things you never see,” in a settlement of this type, Mr. Lambert said. | “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, 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 nonfinancial 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 added. “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. |
| But friends and family were skeptical and called for an independent autopsy. | But friends and family were skeptical and called for an independent autopsy. |