Jago Times "English Edition" Best Online Newspaper
Related Articles
Neither a special prosecutor nor the family’s attorney plan to try to reopen the criminal or civil cases stemming from Sandra Bland’s death in a Waller County jail cell after a new video publicly surfaced in the case.
A Dallas television station on Monday published the recording, made by 28-year-old Bland on her cell phone. It renewed debate over whether the state trooper who pulled her over was properly prosecuted and prompted the family’s attorney to question why he had never seen it.
The two Democrats from Texas running for president, Beto O’Rourke and Julian Castro, called on Twitter for another look at the case. State Rep. Garnet Coleman, a Houston Democrat, planned to hold a hearing related to the video.
But special prosecutor Pheobe Smith, who had access to the video when state Trooper Brian Encinia was indicted on a perjury charge, said she did not plan to re-open the criminal case. It was dismissed in 2017.
NEW BLAND VIDEO: “I will light you up!”
Stay Informed
Text CHRON to 77453 to get breaking news alerts by text | Sign up to receive breaking news alerts delivered to your email here.
Still, Lambert felt the video should have been enough for Encinia to be prosecuted criminally. Family members at the time objected to the dropped criminal charge. Lamber saw in Bland’s video no reason for Encinia to say truthfully that he feared for his life.
“That video from the inside clearly illustrates that there’s no basis for him to make that allegation,” Lambert said. “They had that and they didn’t prosecute it.”