HEMPSTEAD, Texas — A grand jury has decided no felony crime was committed by the sheriff’s office or jailers in the treatment of a black woman who died in a Southeast Texas county jail last summer.
But prosecutor Darrell Jorden says the Waller County grand jury on Monday reached no decision on whether the trooper that arrested 28-year-old Sandra Bland should face charges. The grand jury will return in January to consider that.
The Chicago-area woman was pulled over July 10 by a Texas state trooper for making an improper lane change. Dashcam video showed their interaction quickly became confrontational and she was arrested for assault.
Three days later, unable to raise about $500 bail, she was discovered dead in her cell. Relatives question the finding that she killed herself.
Sandra Bland’s sister, Sharon Cooper, says she will try to find justice as she copes with loss.
Bland family attorney Cannon Lambert says he believes the Texas grand jury process was a sham and that if the prosecutors wanted an indictment, they would have gotten one.