Showing posts with label Brian Encinia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brian Encinia. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 07, 2019

Sandra Bland's Phone Video Of Her Own Arrest Surfaces

Nearly four years after Sandra Bland was pulled over by a Texas state trooper, arrested and put in a jail cell where she was found dead days later, a cellphone video that Bland took of her traffic stop has surfaced. Watch that video below.

After seeing the video Bland's family members now say they want her case reopened.

"Open up the case, period," Bland's sister Shante Needham said after seeing the video, according to TV station WFAA in Dallas. The family's former lawyer says the state never turned over the footage, which Texas officials dispute.

The newly released video shows 39 seconds of the roadside encounter that sharply escalated after state Trooper Brian Encinia pulled Bland over for failing to signal a lane change.

Bland's family believes the video was intentionally not made public, Collister says. According to Houston Public Media, the reporter first obtained the video in 2017, but it wasn't used in a story at the time. It was only after Collister realized Bland's family had not seen the recording that he decided to make it public.

Collister says the video should raise questions for state Attorney General Ken Paxton's office, which represented the Department of Public Safety in the federal wrongful-death lawsuit. Collister says he had been seeking information on whether prosecutors from that office complied with a discovery order and turned over the video during the civil suit.

Read more: Sandra Bland's Phone Video Of Her Own Arrest Surfaces, Reviving Calls For New Inquiry

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Was there a cover-up in the Sandra Bland Case?

A police officer who witnessed Sandra Bland's traffic stop said the Waller County district attorney would not let him testify before a grand jury about facts favorable to Bland, a community activist and former Waller County justice of the peace said Tuesday.

The officer - whose comments over the telephone with activist DeWayne Charleston were recorded said an official with the district attorney's office then threatened to retaliate against him if he went public with his story.

"This is what happens when you try to cross the thin blue line," Charleston said.

"He says Brian Encinia made sure he was not in ear shot of the car. He turned off his own microphone so no one would hear. And then he called his supervisor. 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 Monday.

Kelley says on the recording he tried to share what he'd heard with an official at the district attorney's office.

"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.

"He [Kelly] told me a lot of stuff," Charleston explained, "but the most important is this bit about him being on the scene and making a request to testify and being denied."

In addition, Kelly apparently told Charleston in the audio that a written statement he submitted to the Prairie View police chief never made it into the official DPS report about Bland's traffic stop for changing lanes without signaling.

Charleston said Kelley said on the recording that he offered to testify but that the Waller County District Attorney did not return his call.

Read more: Prairie View officer says DA wouldn't let him testify about Sandra Bland traffic stop

Thursday, March 03, 2016

Trooper who arrested Sandra Bland formally fired

A Texas state trooper indicted over the arrest of a black woman who was later found dead in a jail cell was formally fired on Tuesday. Watch the story below.

Thursday, January 07, 2016

SANDRA BLAND'S FAMILY REACTS TO TROOPER INDICTMENT, FIRING

Sandra Bland's family is reacting to the news that Brian Encinia, the Texas state trooper who arrested Bland during a traffic stop has been charged for perjury and will be fired. Encinia faces up to 1 year in jail. Watch Sandra Bland's family react below: