Sandra Bland

Sandra Bland, 28, was found dead in her cell at the Waller County Jail in Hempstead, Texas on July 13, 2015, three days after Texas State Trooper Brian Encinia arrested her during a traffic stop in nearby Prairie View for failing to signal a lane change. Dashcam video showed the stop escalating after Bland questioned why she had to put out her cigarette, ending with Encinia drawing a Taser and pulling her from her car. Her death was ruled a suicide by asphyxiation. A Waller County grand jury found no criminal wrongdoing by jailers or the sheriff's office, but did indict Encinia on a misdemeanor perjury charge for falsely writing that he removed Bland from her car to conduct a “safer traffic investigation.” That charge — the only criminal charge ever filed against anyone in connection with Bland's death — was dropped in June 2017 after Encinia agreed to surrender his peace officer license and never work in law enforcement again. No one has ever been convicted of any crime related to Bland's arrest, treatment, or death.

Prairie View, TX · Waller County County

• 2015: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The traffic stop, its escalation, and the circumstances of the arrest, per Texas Department of Public Safety dashcam footage and a cell phone video Bland recorded herself.
• Bland was found dead in her cell three days later; the Harris County Medical Examiner ruled the death a suicide by asphyxiation using a plastic garbage bag.
• A Waller County grand jury found no felony had been committed by jailers or the sheriff's office, but indicted Encinia in January 2016 on a single misdemeanor perjury charge for his written account of the arrest.
• Encinia was fired by the Texas Department of Public Safety in March 2016 following the indictment.
• In June 2017, the sole perjury charge against Encinia was dismissed at prosecutors' request after he agreed to permanently surrender his peace officer license, never work in law enforcement again, and never seek to have the charge expunged.
• Bland's family settled a wrongful death lawsuit against Waller County and the Texas Department of Public Safety for $1.9 million in September 2016.
• The Texas Legislature passed the Sandra Bland Act in 2017, mandating that county jails divert people with mental health or substance abuse issues toward treatment and requiring independent investigation of jail deaths — though the bill was significantly narrowed from its original scope during the legislative process.

• Whether Bland's death was in fact a suicide, as officially ruled, continues to be disputed by her family and some outside observers, though no official investigation has overturned the medical examiner's finding.
• Whether jail staff followed required cell-check protocols in the hours before Bland's death was examined by the grand jury, which found no felony conduct, but the full internal findings were not comprehensively made public.
• Whether Encinia's conduct during the arrest itself, beyond the specific written misstatement charged as perjury, was ever independently assessed for criminal liability separate from the dropped charge.

• NBC News — “Sandra Bland Case: Perjury Charge Dropped Against Ex-Trooper Brian Encinia”
• The Texas Tribune — “Perjury charge dropped against trooper who arrested Sandra Bland”
• Community Impact — “Experts reflect 5 years after Sandra Bland's death in Waller County jail”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs