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Naperville family 'looking to understand' woman's death in Texas jail

A Lisle church is planning a Sunday prayer walk to honor Sandra Bland as the Texas Rangers and the FBI continue investigating the circumstances surrounding the 28-year-old Naperville woman's death this week in a Texas county jail cell.

A video that shows Bland's arrest on YouTube (warning: video contains profanity), meanwhile, is causing family members and friends to question the circumstances surrounding the woman's arrest and statements by authorities that she apparently hanged herself while in custody.

Cannon Lambert, an attorney for Bland's family, said Thursday he and one of Bland's sisters planned to fly to Texas that evening or Friday, “praying to get an audience” with lead investigators in the case.

“This family is really looking to understand what happened,” Lambert said. “This is a really, really challenging thing for them to get their minds around. It is very concerning for them.”

Bland was found dead Monday morning in a jail cell in Waller County, about 60 miles from Houston. Texas authorities who performed an autopsy on Tuesday classified her death as suicide by hanging, said Elton Mathis, Waller County district attorney.

“The family has sought to obtain the autopsy,” Lambert said at a news conference. “We recently have been made aware of some of the findings, but the actual autopsy report has not been placed in our hands as of yet.”

Bland was arrested Friday in Waller County on a charge of assaulting a public servant after she was pulled over for failing to signal a lane change, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

The video, apparently taken by a bystander, shows Bland on the ground screaming that she is being assaulted by police.

“You just slammed my head into the ground,” Bland says on the video. “Do you not even care about that? I can't even hear.”

One of Bland's four sisters, Sharon Cooper, said Bland went to Texas to finalize the move-in process after accepting a position as student ambassador at her alma mater, Prairie View A&M University. She was scheduled to begin working this week.

She was pulled over and arrested before she got the chance.

Bland's oldest sister, Shante Needham, said Bland called her Saturday afternoon with the one phone call she was allowed from the Waller County jail.

“She informed me she had been arrested. She said they couldn't tell her what she had been arrested on charges of until an hour before she had called,” Needham said. “She said the officer put his knees in her back and that she thought her shoulder was broken. She said her bond was $515 and I told her I would work on getting her out.”

Lambert said Bland's family was prepared to pay the $500 necessary to bail her out of jail but had not done so by Monday morning.

“There were plans to try and post bail,” he said. “The bail was $5,000, which meant 10 percent, and that was something that was going to happen.”

Jail surveillance video from Monday morning is under review by the district attorney's office, Mathis said. Based on a preliminary review of the video, Mathis said no one can be seen going in or out of Bland's cell shortly before she was found dead.

“There's no indication that anybody entered her jail cell or did anything to her that would have taken her life other than her doing it to herself,” Mathis said.

Mathis also said at a news conference — responding to a question about the importance to the investigation of another recently discovered video of Bland describing depression and post-traumatic stress disorder that she experienced — he will present the findings of a Texas Rangers investigation into the matter to a grand jury.

But Bland's family said it's “unimaginable for this to be characteristic” of the fourth of five girls, a 2005 graduate of Willowbrook High School in Villa Park.

Lambert said Bland's relatives are grateful for the support they're receiving in Naperville, where Bland had been living with family, and around the nation.

“What they are seeking, first, is an opportunity to say thank you to the community but also very much wanting to ask for calm and to allow the investigatory process to take form,” Lambert said. “We don't want to see Sandy politicized. We don't want to see her life politicized and we don't want to see her death politicized.”

Mathis said he's received no information that leads him to believe the case was “racially motivated.”

“If I find out that somebody did something to Sandra Bland, there's going to be hell to pay, but at this point I have no reason to doubt the Texas Rangers and their investigation,” Mathis said.

Lambert, however, said he's familiar with reports that Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith was fired from his position as Hempstead, Texas, police chief in 2007 amid allegations of racism.

“There's a political environment right now and there are a lot of concerns that people have about the racial component. We're not ignorant to that reality. But I also don't think that we should jump to judgment, either. That's why we want to speak to the investigator. We want to understand,” Lambert said.

“I know there's a report that there's a hotbed of challenges that are alleged to exist in that community. We don't live in that community and we know there are good people in that community. We are not going to demonize that community.”

Mathis said presenting the case to a grand jury so a panel of citizens can decide whether there should be charges is standard policy with all suspicious deaths that involve the sheriff's department.

Bland's friends say they have doubts about her death because they don't believe she would have taken her own life.

“What everyone is consistent and fervent about is her zest for life, her love of God, family, church and friends,” said Cheryl Nanton, one of Bland's friends. “Total disbelief that she could have harmed herself.”

Bland and her family were members of DuPage African Methodist Episcopal Church in Lisle for 18 years, the Rev. James Miller said. Bland remained an active attendee of the church, recently participating in a women's group and a young adult group, Miller said.

“Sandra should be remembered as an asset and a value to our society that will not now be able to make her full contribution,” Miller said. “She was very concerned about making a positive contribution. She had gotten a degree in agricultural science and was studying for a master's; she wanted to work with making food better to help with our issues that have to do with the environment. Now we will not have that.”

The church will hold a prayer walk at 10 a.m. Sunday beginning at 4300 Yackley Ave. with the opportunity for anyone interested to sign a petition “to assist and facilitate the investigation into this case,” Miller said.

Once Bland's body is released, Miller said, his church will host her funeral.

Bland's death is the first reported from Waller County jail since 2012, according to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. Brandon Wood, executive director, said the regulatory agency is reviewing inmate observation logs and intake screening records to determine if there were any violations of minimum jail standards that contributed to Bland's death.

Wood said Waller County jail has turned over all relevant records, but a review of the documents is not yet complete. The department of public safety is conducting an internal investigation into Bland's traffic stop.

Bland was stopped by police in Texas at least three times for traffic violations in 2009 and 2010.

• The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Sandra Bland, 28, of Naperville, was found dead in a Waller County, Texas, jail cell Monday morning and authorities continue an investigation into her death. Her family doubts reports that her death was a suicide. Courtesy of Waller County Sheriff
  Sandra Bland's sister and family spokeswoman Sharon Cooper, center, said Thursday the circumstances surrounding her sister's death in a Texas jail cell are "unfathomable." Justin Kmitch/jkmitch@dailyherald.com
  Sandra Bland's four sisters and their attorney are asking supporters to remain calm and let the "investigatory process" finish. Justin Kmitch/jkmitch@dailyherald.com
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