May 24, 2019      12:08 PM

Texas House County Affairs Committee confronts DPS and OAG in Sandra Bland hearing

Chair Coleman demands to know why more information including cell phone video wasn’t released faster; DPS Director McCraw snaps back “You got it!”

Previously unreleased footage from Sandra Bland’s cell phone was the topic of a sometimes-confrontational Texas House County Affairs meeting this morning.

Bland, a 28-year-old black woman, was arrested by a Department of Public Safety trooper and taken to the Waller County Jail for failing to signal when changing lanes back in 2015. She died there three days later, which officials ruled a suicide. Dash cameras video released by the agency showed an intense exchange between Bland and officer Brian Encinia. On the video you can hear Encinia tell Bland: “I will light you up. Get out now. Get out of the car.”

The trooper was fired, and the family sued for wrongful death and perjury. They settled for $1.9 million and the perjury charge against Encinia was dropped.

But County Affairs Chairman Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, was concerned the 39-second cell phone footage released by WFAA Television earlier this month could have impacted the outcome of her case.

By James Russell

Copyright May 24, 2019, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved