Tag Archives: Brian Encinia

State news

Bland jail death case still not resolved

bland

One can make at least this assumption about the arrest of a young woman.

It is that she well might be alive today if the Texas state trooper who arrested her had followed proper policeĀ procedure.

Sandra Bland, though, is dead after hanging herself in her Waller County jail cell. The Department of Public Safety trooper, Brian Encinia, has been indicted by a grand jury for falsifying the circumstances of Bland’s arrest.

DPS commander Col. Steve McCraw has told the Texas Tribune that the trooper blew it and that the agency is going to terminate the officer.

Now . . . is there cause for a wrongful death lawsuit, which Bland’s parents have filed against the state? I don’t know and I hate to speculate about that matter.

Bland was pulled over this past year in a traffic stop. She and Encinia got into an argument after Bland allegedly failed to signal properly prior to making a lane change. The trooper, rather than calming the young woman down, escalated the argument. She left her vehicle and, according to the trooper, struck him while he was taking her into custody.

To think that someone is thrown into the slammer for a lane-change violation. Good grief.

Well, the grand jury doubted the allegation that Bland had struck Encinia. Hence, the indictment.

This case drew national attention after corrections officers found Bland dead in her jail cell. I don’t believe she was killed by authorities in the lockup, which some had speculated. I believe she took her own life.

But the root cause of the entire tragic situation goes back to the arresting officer and his abject failure to follow proper policy.

I hope this incident has awakened police officers and their commanders to the dangers of every-day police work.

What’s more, I also hope it drives home the point that no traffic stop is never, ever routine.

***

See the video of Col. McCraw’s interview with Texas Tribune editor in chief Evan Smith.

http://www.texastribune.org/2016/01/19/video-a-conversation-with-steve-mccraw/

 

State news

Lawmakers right to grill DPS head over Bland arrest

Texas legislators are putting the head of the state’s police agency on the hot seat.

He needs to stay there until he can offer some remedy for an incident that resulted in the tragic death of a young woman who was arrested for a traffic violation.

Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw came under fire this week in a Texas House committee hearing over the arrest of Sandra Bland by a DPS trooper; Bland later died in a Waller County jail after apparently hanging herself in her cell.

http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/30/lawmakers-review-county-jail-procedures-following-/

“I know the death happened in the jail, but the catalyst for the death clearly happened at the traffic stop,” state Rep. Jonathan Strickland, R-Bedford said.

The catalyst was a confrontation between Bland and Trooper Brian Encinia, who pulled Bland over after she failed to signal before making a turn in her vehicle. He asked her to extinguish her cigarette.Then matters got ugly.

Bland sassed the officer, who then became agitated. Bland then became angry. Encinia got even angrier. The trooper then pulled his Taser out and threatened to “light you up” with the device.

Bland and Encinia exchanged more heated insults. She exited the vehicle and was taken to jail.

And for what? Because she didn’t use her turn signal.

Strickland also wondered aloud why the trooper is still on the job, to which McCraw answered that the agency has a process that he intends to follow before deciding how to handle Encinia’s future with DPS.

The incident, which has drawn international attention, needs a thorough examination. McCraw has promised to provide one.

One avenue that needs exploring is how a trooper — who is supposedly trainedĀ to de-escalate tension with the public — actually took it in the opposite — and tragically wrong direction.