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Sandra Bland – who was vocal on the issue of police encounters with African Americans in the months leading up to her death in a jail cell in Texas -- had at least 10 encounters herself with police in both Illinois and Texas in past years.

And NBC5 Investigates has found that – at the time of her death last Friday -- she still owed a total of $7,579.00 in court fines resulting from five traffic stops in various Chicago suburbs (including a DUI), and she had been cited several times for her failure to pay those fines.
http://www.nbcchicago.com/investiga...revious-Encounters-With-Police-316025661.html
 
New Info Update
Sandra Bland, the black woman found hanging dead in a Texas jail days after a traffic stop, smoked or possibly swallowed a large amount of marijuana while in custody, her family's attorney reported the district attorney as saying.

Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis made the disclosure in a text message to attorney Cannon Lambert, who has called the state's autopsy on the Chicago-area woman defective, Lambert said.

"Looking at the autopsy results and toxicology, it appears she swallowed a large quantity of marijuana or smoked it in the jail," Mathis said in a text message to Lambert that the attorney provided to Reuters.

Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the text. Repeated calls to Mathis' office were not returned.

"This will of course be very relevant in any future criminal or civil litigation," the message from Mathis to Lambert said.

Bland was pulled over on July 10 near Prairie View, Texas, northwest of Houston, for failing to signal a lane change. After the incident escalated into an altercation between her and the trooper, Bland was taken into custody and charged with assaulting an officer. She was found hanging in her jail cell on July 13 with a plastic trash bag around her neck.

Her death was originally ruled a suicide, although officials have said they are handling it as a murder probe.

According to Lambert, Mathis said the state needs to conduct a second autopsy on Bland, whose body was returned to the Chicago area on Wednesday in preparation for a funeral on Saturday.

"The family's confidence is shaken by the continued discrepancies that are surfacing," Lambert said in an email to Reuters.

Waller County Assistant District Attorney Warren Diepraam told NBC News further tests were required to determine how much marijuana was in her system and for how long to conclude when it was ingested and what role, if any, it played in her death.

CBS News reported that Mathis had asked that Bland's body be preserved after a toxicology test found a substantial amount of marijuana in her system at the time of her death, but denying that he had ordered a second autopsy.

Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith, whose office operates the jail where Bland died, could not be reached immediately for comment Thursday on the report of marijuana in her system.

Smith told Reuters on Wednesday that the jailers on duty when Bland was admitted felt she was not a suicide risk based on their observations and her statement on the questionnaire that she was not depressed at the time.

JAIL CITED

The jail where Bland died was cited three days after her death by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards for failing to complete visual face-to-face observations of inmates every 60 minutes as required by state regulations.

It was also cited for failing to produce written records to prove that jail staff had undergone required yearly training in the recognition, supervision, documentation and handling of inmates who are mentally disabled or potentially suicidal.

The jail also failed an inspection in November 2012 for failing to complete hourly observations after an inmate's suicide, state records show.

Bland was being held alone in a cell designed for up to five women when she was found dead.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...ction=black-voices&ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000047
 
New information pertaining to her autopsy was released this afternoon. It appears more likely her death was a suicide.

Medical examiners ruled the death of Sandra Bland a suicide by hanging, and the autopsy uncovered no evidence of a violent struggle, a Texas prosecutor said Thursday.

Warren Diepraam, the first assistant district attorney of Waller County, released the findings at a press conference. He said prosecutors had "full faith" in the state forensics agency that conducted the autopsy.
[...]
Diepraam said the autopsy found no defensive injuries on Bland's hands — only abrasions on her wrist consistent with a struggle while she was being handcuffed.
[...]
Diepraam said there were about 30 cuts on Bland's wrists, and that the scarring suggests they were made two to four weeks ago, well before her arrest. [suicide attempt?]

The only injury to her neck or head was a "uniform and consistent" mark consistent with a suicide by hanging, not a violent strangling.

Diepraam said that toxicology tests found marijuana in Bland's system, but he said further tests would be necessary to determine when she ingested it.

District Attorney Elton Mathis told NBC News on Thursday that the amount of marijuana suggests that Bland either would have "smoked marijuana recently or possibly ingested a large amount of marijuana prior to her being placed in the jail."

Jail intake forms filled out for Bland appear to show that she told jailers she tried to commit suicide last year, and that she had been "very depressed" in the past. But the answers on the forms are inconsistent.

Diepraam said it was "hypothetically possible that it could have been smoked in the jail," but he said the sheriff searched the jail and found nothing to support that conclusion. Other inmates told the sheriff they didn't smell anything unusual, Diepraam said.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...suicide-hanging-texas-prosecutor-says-n397351

Bland did not have injuries on her hands, Diepraam said.

“The only injury that was found close to the hands were some lacerations or abrasions on her wrists, which are consistent with being handcuffed and struggling,” he said. “There were no bite marks or other injuries on her face, on her lips, on her tongue, which would be consistent with a violent struggle.” If there had been a violent struggle, Diepraam said, examiners would most likely not expect to see a uniform and consistent mark around Bland’s neck — which is what they, in fact, observed.
[...]
Separately, an inmate who was held in a cell adjacent to Bland told CNN she did not hear any commotion or screaming that would suggest foul play before the 28-year-old woman was found dead.

The woman, who asked not to be identified, said Bland was emotional and often crying during her three days in the jail.

The inmate says she spoke with Bland twice, and that Bland told her she was worried about not being able to talk with her family members, and was stressed about missing her first day of work at her new job.
[...]
A form that appeared to be filled out by hand after her arrest states that Bland tried to overdose with pills in 2015 after losing a baby. [separate suicide attempt?]
http://fox8.com/2015/07/23/officials-share-details-of-sandra-bland-autopsy-findings/
 
Plenty of scars on her wrist kind of makes the family and friends less than truthful, this young lady had some major issues and I doubt she was able to hide them from anyone, she was just too volatile and angry
 
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She shouldn't have been arrested to begin with, not over a seemingly benign traffic stop. Everything about this is odd, including the released video. I've seen comments over and over again on articles citing that she wasn't arrested for a crime but for her attitude---as if that isn't a problem. Last time I checked, having a so-called "bad attitude" isn't a criminal act.
Once the police approach you, your rights disappear. If they want to take you away, they can if they want. While it's in a persons 'best interest' to be compliant, the fact is that it doesn't matter how compliant you are--- if they want to arrest you, they will, and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it, or what happens to you afterward.

Perhaps she did kill herself, but as other posts mentioned, that seems extremely strange in jail (rather than prison).
 
Texas state trooper is indicted for PERJURY in case of black police detainee Sandra Bland who died in custody
  • Sandra Bland found dead in jail days after being arrested for a traffic stop
  • Her family claimed she was subjected to unwarranted brutality in custody
  • The county filed motion to overthrow lawsuit saying she had killed herself
  • Texas State Trooper Brian Encinia has now been indicted for perjury
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...olice-detainee-Sandra-Bland-died-custody.html
 
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/stat...dra-bland-was-threatened-with-retaliation.ece
A Central Texas police officer was not allowed to testify to a grand jury about the arrest of Sandra Bland — who died in custody last year — despite witnessing the incident, an activist said Tuesday.

DeWayne Charleston, a former justice of the peace in Waller County, released a recording he made earlier this year of a conversation with Prairie View police Officer Michael Kelley, the Houston Chronicle reports.
[....]
Charleston said that, in the recorded conversation, Kelley told him that he heard Encinia say he hadn't decided what charge to book Bland on, even though he had already detained her.

"He said, 'I have no idea what I'm going to arrest her for, but we'll figure it out when we get to the county jail,'" Charleston said.

Kelley told Charleston an official at the district attorney's office threatened him with retaliation when he said he wanted to tell what he had heard.

"I wanted to testify on Sandra Bland's behalf, and they told me if I said anything they're going to come after me," he said in the recording.

Kelley also told Charleston that he submitted a written statement about Bland's traffic stop to his chief, but it was not in the official DPS report about the incident.

Charleston said the conversation indicated a cover-up by Waller County officials.

"He was a police officer on the scene," Charleston said Tuesday. "He was willing to cross the blue line."

Encinia was fired from his job and has pleaded not guilty to a perjury charge.

Kelley has been charged with official oppression in an unrelated incident stemming from his use of a Taser on a City Council member who reportedly wasn't following police instructions. A grand jury declined to indict the council member on a charge of resisting arrest.
 
'Open up the case': Sandra Bland's family wants answers after new video surfaces

A newly released video recorded by Sandra Bland, a black woman found dead in a Texas jailhouse three days after a confrontational traffic stop by a white state trooper in 2015, is raising new questions about an incident that helped launch the Black Lives Matter movement.

Bland’s family is demanding her case be reexamined after the 39-second video, obtained by the nonprofit journalism organization Investigative Network, was aired Monday night in Dallas TV station WFAA.

“Open up the case. Period,’’ Bland’s sister, Shante Needham, told WFAA. “We know they have an extremely, extremely good cover-up system.”
 
I've come across unhinged cops. I'm talking of completely fucking wack jobs who would go apeshit over a man having a handicapped sign wrong in his car. There are also many who are ones who will go even more wacko if a person 'disrespects' them. Trust me things like murders in jails by cops do happen. Believe that!!
 
This is true and that's why you should use discretion in your dealings with them. It is pointless and dangerous to argue with LE. The place for that battle is the courtroom; not the side of the road. Just do what they tell you to do. Perhaps if she had been cooperative she may not have been taken in and would still be alive. What good are your rights when you're dead?
 
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