By DAVID MONTGOMERYJAN. 6, 2016
HEMPSTEAD, Tex. — The state
trooper who arrested Sandra Bland, the Chicago-area woman who three days later
was found hanged in her cell at the Waller County jail, has been indicted on a
perjury charge, a special prosecutor here said Wednesday.
Hours after the indictment was
announced against the trooper, Brian T. Encinia, the Department of Public
Safety said that the state police agency “will begin termination proceedings to
discharge him.”
The charge against Trooper
Encinia, a Class A misdemeanor, was announced at the end of a day of grand jury
deliberations. It carries a possible penalty of one year in jail and a $4,000
fine, prosecutors said.
The charge stemmed from a
one-page affidavit that Trooper Encinia filed with jail officials justifying
the arrest of Ms. Bland, who was pulled over July 10 in a routine traffic stop
in Prairie View, northwest of Houston, for failing to use her turn signal. Ms.
Bland, 28, who was black, was returning to Texas to take a job at Prairie View
A&M University, her alma mater.
Assessing the Legality of Sandra
Bland’s Arrest
A video released by Texas
officials confirms accounts of a physical confrontation between Ms. Bland and a
state trooper. But her arrest and cause of death remain in dispute.
The trooper wrote that he removed
Ms. Bland from her car to more safely conduct a traffic investigation, but “the
grand jury found that statement to be false,” a special prosecutor, Shawn
McDonald, said.
A police dashboard-camera video
of the episode shows an escalating confrontation after Ms. Bland refuses
Trooper Encinia’s request to put out a cigarette. At one point, Trooper Encinia
says he will forcibly remove Ms. Bland from her car and threatens her with a
Taser, saying, “I will light you up.”
Larkin Eakin, Trooper Encinia’s
lawyer, said he spoke to his client after the indictment was announced. “His
reaction was he’s not guilty,” Mr. Eakin said. “When you’re not guilty, you
don’t expect to be indicted.”
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and Policing Into Sharp Relief
The next step calls for a Waller
County judge to issue a warrant, set bond and schedule an arraignment hearing.
Mr. Eakin said Trooper Encinia remained on administrative duty and would appear
for the arraignment when the date was set.
The question of criminal charges
against Trooper Encinia was believed to be the last major issue facing the
grand jury, which began its investigation in August, two special prosecutors,
Darrell Jordan and Lewis White, told reporters outside the Waller County
Courthouse earlier Wednesday. The grand jury had already declined to indict any
of Ms. Bland’s jailers in connection with her death on July 13, effectively
sustaining the medical examiner’sruling of suicide.
Ms. Bland’s family, which has
filed a wrongful-death suit, has expressed frustration and disappointment with
the grand jury, saying Waller County officials have failed to keep them
informed about its progress. Cannon Lambert, the family’s lawyer, has called
the case a “sham of a process.” The Waller County district attorney, Elton
Mathis, appointed an independent panel of five lawyers, including Mr. Jordan
and Mr. White, to oversee the investigation.
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