Sandra Bland Settlement: $1.9M Wrongful Death Case and Reforms

The Sandra Bland settlement resolved a federal wrongful death lawsuit in September 2016 for $1.9 million, with Waller County paying $1.8 million and the Texas Department of Public Safety paying $100,000.¹ Beyond the money, the agreement forced changes to how the Waller County jail operates and how Texas troopers are trained, and it required that any future Texas legislation reforming rural jails carry Bland’s name.²

Who Paid, and How Much

Cannon Lambert, the attorney for Bland’s mother Geneva Reed-Veal, announced the settlement on September 15, 2016. Waller County’s share was $1.8 million. The Texas Department of Public Safety paid $100,000, the maximum allowed under state statute.¹ The Waller County Commissioner’s Court formally approved the county’s portion on September 21, 2016.³

The Reforms the Settlement Required

The dollar figure was only part of the deal. The settlement bound the Waller County jail and the Texas Department of Public Safety to specific operational and training changes:

On-duty nursing or emergency medical technician coverage for every shift at the jail.²
Automated electronic sensors to log cell checks, replacing manual logs that could be falsified.⁴
Access to telemedicine services for detainees.⁴
Enhanced jailer training, including continuing education on booking and intake screening.⁵
Statewide de-escalation training for Texas Department of Public Safety troopers.²
A provision that any future Texas legislation changing rural jail operations be named after Sandra Bland.²

Reed-Veal treated the settlement as one step, not the end. She had already called the grand jury’s refusal to indict anyone in her daughter’s death “not justice,” and after the deal she said her focus would move to town halls and legislative advocacy. “That’s the next piece of the journey,” she said.⁶

What the Lawsuit Alleged

Reed-Veal filed the wrongful death suit on August 4, 2015, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, as Reed-Veal v. Encinia et al., No. 4:15-cv-02232.⁷ Named defendants were Trooper Brian Encinia, two Waller County jail guards, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and Waller County. The complaint alleged Bland should never have been arrested, that Encinia fabricated a basis to take her into custody, and that jailers held her in unsafe conditions and failed to respond when she refused meals and experienced bouts of uncontrollable crying.⁸

Bland, 28, had been pulled over on July 10, 2015, in Prairie View, Texas, for failing to signal a lane change, and was arrested and charged with assaulting a public servant after the stop escalated.⁹ Three days later she was found hanging in her Waller County jail cell. The Harris County Institute of Forensic Science ruled the death a suicide; her family disputed the finding.¹⁰

The Sandra Bland Act

The settlement’s naming provision was fulfilled the following year. Governor Greg Abbott signed the Sandra Bland Act (Senate Bill 1849) on June 15, 2017, and it took effect September 1, 2017. The law:

Required county jails to make a good-faith effort to divert people with mental health or substance abuse issues toward treatment rather than jail for nonviolent misdemeanors.¹¹
Required 24/7 telehealth access to mental health professionals in jails, and continuity of prescription medications for people taken into custody.¹¹
Required an independent law enforcement agency to investigate every death in a county jail.¹²
Required all law enforcement officers to complete 40 hours of de-escalation and crisis intervention training as part of basic training and continuing education.¹¹

The final bill was narrower than the version State Representative Garnet Coleman first introduced. Provisions on racial profiling, consent searches, and counseling for officers who engaged in profiling were stripped out after opposition from law enforcement groups. Bland’s family called the final bill a “missed opportunity” because it removed the language most directly related to the traffic stop that led to her arrest.¹²

In 2023, the Texas Senate passed Senate Bill 1896, which would exempt jail deaths a doctor determined to be from natural causes from the independent investigation requirement. Critics said the exemption could shield jails from accountability for medical neglect. As of May 2023 the bill had been sent to the Texas House, and available reporting does not confirm it became law.¹³

The Civil Settlement Was Not a Criminal Case

The $1.9 million was a civil resolution. On the criminal side, a Waller County grand jury declined in December 2015 to indict anyone in connection with Bland’s death.¹⁴ The same grand jury did charge Trooper Brian Encinia with misdemeanor perjury in January 2016, alleging he lied in a sworn affidavit that Bland was “combative and uncooperative” and that he had removed her from the car to conduct a “safer traffic investigation.” Dashcam video contradicted that account. The Texas Department of Public Safety fired him after the indictment.¹⁵

On June 28, 2017, a Waller County district judge dismissed the perjury charge at the prosecution’s request. In exchange, Encinia agreed to surrender his state law enforcement license, never seek another law enforcement job, never seek expungement of the charge, and allow the case to be reopened if he violated those terms.¹⁶ He was the only official ever criminally charged in the case.

The 2019 Cellphone Video

The settlement did not close the record. On May 6, 2019, Dallas station WFAA aired a 39-second video Bland had recorded on her own cellphone during the traffic stop, showing Encinia opening the door, pointing his stun gun at close range, and ordering her out while she said, “I have a right to record. This is my property.”¹⁷

Lambert said neither he nor the family had seen the footage until a reporter shared it with them in 2019. The Texas Department of Public Safety disputed that account, saying the video had been on a hard drive of evidence released to an Austin television station under open-records law in 2017.¹⁸ Lambert called the video’s late emergence “troubling,” particularly because it appeared not to have been weighed when prosecutors agreed to drop Encinia’s perjury charge. Several presidential candidates called for the case to be reopened. No new criminal proceedings followed.¹⁹

1
ABC News. Sandra Bland’s Family Reaches Tentative $1.9M Settlement
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PBS NewsHour. Sandra Bland’s Family Reaches $1.9 Million Settlement
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NBC DFW. A Texas County Approves $1.8M Settlement in Sandra Bland Suit
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KERA News. Hearings Will Address Criminal Justice Reforms in Sandra Bland’s Name
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Houston Public Media. Sandra Bland’s Family Settles Wrongful Death Lawsuit
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ABC13 Houston. Sandra Bland’s Family Says Civil Suit Settled for $1.9M
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Texas Legislative Reference Library. Reed-Veal v. Encinia Case Page
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New York Times. Sandra Bland Family Lawsuit
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Texas Tribune. Sandra Bland’s Family Settles Wrongful Death Lawsuit
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Texas Public Radio. FBI Joins Investigation of Sandra Bland’s Death in Texas Jail
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Texas Legislature. SB 1849 Enrolled Text
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Texas Tribune. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Signs Sandra Bland Act Into Law
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KERA News. Texas Senate Passes Bill to Walk Back Sandra Bland Act
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PBS NewsHour. Texas Trooper Involved With Sandra Bland Arrest Indicted on Perjury Charges
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NBC News. Sandra Bland Case: Perjury Charge Dropped Against Ex-Trooper Brian Encinia
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Houston Public Media. Perjury Case Dropped Against Ex-Trooper in Sandra Bland Case
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Houston Public Media. Sandra Bland’s Own Video of 2015 Texas Traffic Stop Surfaces
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CNN. Sandra Bland Cell Phone Video
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NBC News. Newly Aired Sandra Bland Cellphone Video Shows Traffic Stop From Her Perspective