Trooper who arrested Sandra Bland indicted on a perjury charge

The Texas 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, reports the New York Times.

The charge against trooper, Brian T. Encinia, is a Class A misdemeanor, and was announced at the end of a day of grand jury deliberations. The charge 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 in a routine traffic stop in Prairie View, for failing to use her turn signal. Ms. Bland, 28, who is Black, was returning to Texas in July to take a job at her alma mater, Prairie View A&M.

The trooper wrote that he removed Ms. Bland from her car in order to conduct a safe 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 incident, however, shows an escalating confrontation after Ms. Bland refused Trooper Encinia’s request to put out her cigarette. At that point, Trooper Encinia says he will forcibly remove her from her car and threatens Ms. Bland with a Taser, saying, “I will light you up.”

The question of criminal charges against Trooper Encinia was believed to be the last major issue before the Waller County grand jury, which began its investigation in August, special prosecutors Darrell Jordan and Lewis White told reporters outside the Waller County Courthouse earlier on Wednesday.

Earlier, the grand jury decided not to indict officers in her jail house death and officially ruled it a suicide. Though no indictment, Sandra Bland’s family continues to fight as they have filed a wrongful death suit.