OFFICER ACCUSES OFFICIALS OF COVER- UP, THREATS IN BLAND CASE
DALLAS — A police officer in the small Texas town where Sandra Bland, a black woman who later died in a jail cell, was pulled over says the county’s top prosecutors threatened to end his career if he came forward with what he says is evidence of wrongdoing, an accusation the prosecutors deny.
Among the things Prairie View officer Michael Kelley said this week that he wanted to tell a grand jury: Bland appeared to have marks on her forehead after a confrontation with state trooper Brian Encinia, who pulled her over last July for allegedly failing to signal while changing a lane; Encinia was on the phone with a supervisor after arresting her because he didn’t know what charge she should face, and the police report Encinia ultimately submitted left out key details.
Kelley said he was never contacted by special prosecutors handling the case, and the Waller County district attorney’s top assistant said there would be repercussions if he spoke to a Bland family attorney. Prosecutors have strongly denied Kelley’s allegations.
Bland was found dead three days after the traffic stop in a county jail cell; authorities ruled it a suicide. But her death galvanized the national Black Lives Matter movement and others protesting police misconduct.
Many of Bland’s supporters have long questioned whether local authorities would fairly investigate the case. No one from the jail or the sheriff’s office has been indicted, even though the county acknowledged jailers did not properly monitor Bland or screen her properly after she mentioned she had a history of mental illness. One jailer has given a deposition admitting he falsified a jail log.
Encinia was indicted on a misdemeanor charge of perjury, which is pending, and was fired by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Bland family attorney Cannon Lambert said Friday: “The family feels this was pretty shocking. I understand that Officer Kelley has been granting interviews to people and that’s how the lion’s share of the information is coming out. And so for him to be prepared to hold interviews, it kind of seems to underscore how he feels about what happened to Sandra.”
Kelley, meanwhile, is suspended from the police department after being captured on video using a Taser on a black city councilman in Prairie View and being indicted for official oppression related to an unlawful arrest. He claims prosecutors sought that indictment as retaliation.
Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis issued a statement implying Kelley is trying to profit from Bland’s death.
“I unequivocally state that he never approached me, my first assistant, or any member of my staff with any such information,” Mathis said, adding: “I can only imagine this is an attempt to divert attention” from Kelley’s case.