--- title: Sandra Bland: Trooper Indicted for Perjury description: This comes after a December no indictment verdict for the jail staff. canonical: https://time.com/4170411/sandra-bland-officer-arrest-perjury/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-06T22:51:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T21:00:29.000Z article:section: U.S. og:title: Trooper Who Arrested Sandra Bland Indicted for Perjury og:description: Bland's relatives have also filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the trooper og:url: https://time.com/4170411/sandra-bland-officer-arrest-perjury/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcbb4d597c8a767f0/698877f3bc6cfc408c3db1d8/gettyimages-483515976.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: US-POLICE-RACISM-UNREST og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trooper Who Arrested Sandra Bland Indicted for Perjury twitter:description: Bland's relatives have also filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the trooper twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcbb4d597c8a767f0/698877f3bc6cfc408c3db1d8/gettyimages-483515976.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trooper Who Arrested Sandra Bland Indicted for Perjury by [Daniel White](/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Updated: Dec 13, 2023 9:00 PM CUTPublished: Jan 6, 2016 10:51 PM CUT  A woman holds a poster bearing the portrait of Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old black woman who killed herself in a Texas jail cell on July 13th, during a Michael Brown memorial rally in Union Square in New York on Aug. 9, 2015. A woman holds a poster bearing the portrait of Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old black woman who killed herself in a Texas jail cell on July 13th, during a Michael Brown memorial rally in Union Square in New York on Aug. 9, 2015.Kena Betancur—AFP/Getty Images by [Daniel White](/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Updated: Dec 13, 2023 9:00 PM CUTPublished: Jan 6, 2016 10:51 PM CUT A Texas grand jury on Wednesday [indicted the trooper who arrested Sandra Bland](http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Grand-jury-to-meet-today-to-hear-more-details-6740043.php "undefined") on perjury charges. Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Brian Encinia was indicted for a statement he made in his report on the incident saying that he pulled Bland out of her car to continue the investigation, the Houston _Chronicle_ reports. According to the paper, Encinia could face up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine. Following the indictment, Texas Department of Public Safety said it will fire the trooper, the Associated Press reports. Bland, a 28-year-old African-American woman, was arrested during a traffic stop in July. Three days later she was found dead, hanging from a noose in her cell in what was ruled a suicide. In December, a grand jury [declined to indict](http://time.com/4158377/sandra-bland-prosecutor-no-indictment/ "undefined") the jail staff or members of the Waller County Sheriff’s Office in Bland’s death. The grand jury found Trooper Encinia’s claim—[that he removed Bland from her car to conduct the traffic stop safely](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/07/us/texas-grand-jury-sandra-bland.html?emc=edit%5Fna%5F20160106&nlid=72919783&ref=headline&%5Fr=0 "undefined")—to be false. Encinia pulled Bland’s vehicle over for failing to use her turn signal. Video from a police dashboard-camera shows Encinia pulling Bland from her car and threatening to use his Taser, telling Bland, “I will light you up,” the New York _Times_ reports. Bland’s relatives have filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against Encinia, the Texas Department of Public Saftey, Waller County, and two county jailers that is set to begin in Jan. 2017. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4170411/sandra-bland-officer-arrest-perjury/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4170411/sandra-bland-officer-arrest-perjury/"},"headline":"Trooper Who Arrested Sandra Bland Indicted for Perjury","datePublished":"2016-01-06T22:51:09.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T21:00:29.000Z","description":"Bland's relatives have also filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the trooper","url":"https://time.com/4170411/sandra-bland-officer-arrest-perjury/","keywords":["Texas","Crime","Courts","Civil Rights","black lives matter"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcbb4d597c8a767f0/698877f3bc6cfc408c3db1d8/gettyimages-483515976.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcbb4d597c8a767f0/698877f3bc6cfc408c3db1d8/gettyimages-483515976.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-POLICE-RACISM-UNREST","caption":"A woman holds a poster bearing the portrait of Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old black woman who killed herself in a Texas jail cell on July 13th, during a Michael Brown memorial rally in Union Square in New York on Aug. 9, 2015.","creditText":"Kena Betancur—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4170411/sandra-bland-officer-arrest-perjury/","name":"Trooper Who Arrested Sandra Bland Indicted for Perjury"}}]}] ```