Texas county: Sandra Bland was despondent over not meeting bail
HOUSTON - Sandra Bland, the Naperville woman found dead in a Texas county jail this summer, killed herself because she was despondent over her relatives' refusal to quickly bail her out, attorneys for Waller County argue in a federal court motion to dismiss a wrongful-death lawsuit.
An attorney for Bland's family responded that blaming relatives for her death was "completely unnecessary and inaccurate."
"That's a gratuitous insult, pouring salt into the wound of an already devastated family," Larry Rogers Jr., a lawyer for Geneva Reed-Veal, Bland's mother, said Friday.
Bland, 28, from the Chicago area, was pulled over July 10 by a white Texas state trooper for making an improper lane change. When the traffic stop became a confrontation, she was arrested on charges of assault and jailed in Waller County, about 50 miles northwest of Houston.
Unable to meet the roughly $500 bond requirement, she was found dead in jail three days later.
Bland's arrest and death came amid heightened national scrutiny of police and their dealings with black suspects, especially those who have been killed by officers or die in police custody.
"Ultimately, Bland's decision to commit suicide was hers alone, after she denied any suicidal intentions to jail personnel, and after her friends and family refused to bail her out of jail," Larry Simmons, the attorney for the Southeast Texas county and two of its jailers, said in a court petition. The county and jailers were sued by the Bland family.
Rogers said the family didn't ignore her pleas for help. He said they were trying to figure out how to "get her out of jail in a situation where it's happening over a weekend, they're not familiar with the procedures and processes, they're over a thousand miles away."
A medical examiner concluded that she used a plastic trash bag in the jail cell to hang herself. Members of her family have questioned whether she would have taken her own life. The family also says she was assaulted by a trooper during the arrest and the county failed to keep her safe and secure in jail.
The county said in its court filing this week that Bland was provided a phone to make free calls but a local friend didn't respond and at least one of her sisters "advised she would not bail Bland out of jail."
The friend has said he didn't see a voice-mail message from her until it was too late.
"It is apparent now that Bland's inability to secure her release from jail - and her family and friends' refusal to bail her out of jail - led her to commit suicide," Simmons said.
Tom Rhodes, another attorney for Bland's mother, added that the request for dismissal of the case was "premature" because lawyers haven't been able to take any depositions from people involved.
Besides the county and two jailers, other defendants in the suit are the trooper, Brian Encinia, and the Texas Department of Public Safety. The Texas Attorney General's office also has asked U.S. District Judge David Hittner to dismiss the lawsuit.
A hearing in the case before Hittner is set for next month.