Texas Cop Who Arrested Sandra Bland Indicted for Perjury;

The Texas state trooper who pulled Sandra Bland over last year, dragging her out of her car when she would not extinguish a cigarette, then throwing her in jail where she was later found dead, was indicted today for perjury, meaning he lied in his police report.

That was [**obvious to anybody who watched the video**](http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2015/07/breaking-new-video-show-texas-state-police-officer-lies-to-dispatch-about-sandra-bland-arrest/), then read the affidavit filed by trooper Brian Encinia, who claimed he ordered her out of the car to “further conduct a safe traffic investigation.”

And that was obvious to the Waller County grand jury, who “found that statement to be false,” according to special prosecutor Shawn McDonald, who apparently did not see the need to pursue charges of assault and battery or false imprisonment, even though those would also have been appropriate.

The truth is, Encinia ordered her out of her car for contempt of cop because the traffic investigation was already completed.

And once she was out of the car, he didn’t like the fact that she kept kept questioning her arrest, demanding to know why she was being arrested before following his orders to turn around and place her hands behind her back.

Not only could he not provide her with a lawful reason to arrest her that day, he was unable to come up with a lawful reason in his report, so he further lied by claiming she was “combative” and had to be placed in handcuffs for “officer safety.”

He also accused her swinging her elbows at him and kicking him in the shin, leaving him in pain.

None of that happened but it appears as if the grand jury only focused on the lie he conjured about ordering her out of her car.

The perjury charge is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $,4,000 fine, according to the [**New York Times.**](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/07/us/texas-grand-jury-sandra-bland.html?smid=tw-bna)

Encinia, 30, has worked for the Texas Department of Public Safety since 2014.

On July 10, he pulled Bland over for making an improper lane change. He had already obtained her drivers license and ran her name for warrants before he walked back to her car to hand her a citation.

But she had been smoking a cigarette, so he ordered her to put it out, but she refused. He then escalated the situation to the point of ordering her out of her car under threat of tasering, telling her, “I will light you up.”

She was arrested and jailed and found dead in her cell three days later of an apparent suicide.

Last month, a grand jury determined jail staff did not commit any crimes. Today’s grand jury came away with a different conclusion on Encinia, who had already been placed on administrative leave by the department for violating department standards.

Bland’s family has filed a lawsuit, which is expected to go to trial next January.

**UPDATE**: The Texas Department of Public Safety issued the following statement after the grand jury decision, saying they are taking steps to fire Encinio.

![](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/maven-user-photos/pinacnews/public-records/LhlGTxQVnU-jb5b_cF6-uA/-kM53XPJq0GLcI4SHbUlrQ)

The Texas state trooper who pulled Sandra Bland over last year, dragging her out of her car when she would not extinguish a cigarette, then throwing her in jail where she was later found dead, was indicted today for perjury, meaning he lied in his police report.

That was [**obvious to anybody who watched the video**](http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2015/07/breaking-new-video-show-texas-state-police-officer-lies-to-dispatch-about-sandra-bland-arrest/), then read the affidavit filed by trooper Brian Encinia, who claimed he ordered her out of the car to “further conduct a safe traffic investigation.”

And that was obvious to the Waller County grand jury, who “found that statement to be false,” according to special prosecutor Shawn McDonald, who apparently did not see the need to pursue charges of assault and battery or false imprisonment, even though those would also have been appropriate.

The truth is, Encinia ordered her out of her car for contempt of cop because the traffic investigation was already completed.

And once she was out of the car, he didn’t like the fact that she kept kept questioning her arrest, demanding to know why she was being arrested before following his orders to turn around and place her hands behind her back.

Not only could he not provide her with a lawful reason to arrest her that day, he was unable to come up with a lawful reason in his report, so he further lied by claiming she was “combative” and had to be placed in handcuffs for “officer safety.”

He also accused her swinging her elbows at him and kicking him in the shin, leaving him in pain.

None of that happened but it appears as if the grand jury only focused on the lie he conjured about ordering her out of her car.

The perjury charge is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $,4,000 fine, according to the [**New York Times.**](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/07/us/texas-grand-jury-sandra-bland.html?smid=tw-bna)

Encinia, 30, has worked for the Texas Department of Public Safety since 2014.

On July 10, he pulled Bland over for making an improper lane change. He had already obtained her drivers license and ran her name for warrants before he walked back to her car to hand her a citation.

But she had been smoking a cigarette, so he ordered her to put it out, but she refused. He then escalated the situation to the point of ordering her out of her car under threat of tasering, telling her, “I will light you up.”

She was arrested and jailed and found dead in her cell three days later of an apparent suicide.

Last month, a grand jury determined jail staff did not commit any crimes. Today’s grand jury came away with a different conclusion on Encinia, who had already been placed on administrative leave by the department for violating department standards.

Bland’s family has filed a lawsuit, which is expected to go to trial next January.

**UPDATE**: The Texas Department of Public Safety issued the following statement after the grand jury decision, saying they are taking steps to fire Encinio.

![](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/maven-user-photos/pinacnews/public-records/LhlGTxQVnU-jb5b_cF6-uA/-kM53XPJq0GLcI4SHbUlrQ)

Support our Mission

Help us build a database of bad cops

For almost 15 years, PINAC News has remained active despite continuous efforts by the government and Big Tech to shut us down by either arresting us for lawful activity or by restricting access to our readers under the pretense that we write about “social issues.”

Since we are forbidden from discussing social issues on social media, we have created forums on our site to allow us to fulfill our mission with as little restriction as possible. We welcome our readers to join our forums and support our mission by either donating, volunteering or both.

Our plan is to build a national database of bad cops obtained from public records maintained by local prosecutors. The goal is to teach our readers how to obtain these lists to ensure we cover every city, county and state in the country.

After all, the government has made it clear it will not police the police so the role falls upon us.

It will be our most ambitious project yet but it can only be done with your help.

But if we succeed, we will be able to keep innocent people out of prison.

Please make a donation below or click on side tab to learn more about our mission.

Subscribe to PINAC

Bypass Big Tech censorship.

Carlos Miller
Carlos Millerhttps://pinacnews.com
Editor-in-Chief Carlos Miller spent a decade covering the cop beat for various newspapers in the Southwest before returning to his hometown Miami and launching Photography is Not a Crime aka PINAC News in 2007. He also published a book, The Citizen Journalist's Photography Handbook, which is available on Amazon.

Leave a Reply

- Advertisement -

Latest articles