Sandra Bland arrest cover-up, Texas policeman says

This video from the USA says about itself:

31 December 2015

Scores of protesters held a vigil in commemoration of Sandra Bland in downtown New York on Wednesday evening. 28-year-old Bland’s death in police custody in Texas earlier this year sparked widespread protests across the United States, with protesters blaming the authorities for her passing.

By Michael McLaughlin, Reporter, The Huffington Post in the USA:

Police Officer In Sandra Bland Case Describes Alleged Cover-Up

He claims that facts in her favor were omitted from the final report.

07/26/2016 08:38 pm ET

A Texas police officer on Tuesday accused law enforcement officials of covering up what he saw during Sandra Bland’s controversial arrest last summer.

Prairie View police officer Michael Kelley told The Huffington Post that portions of his original incident report, which reflected poorly on the state trooper who arrested Bland, were removed. He also alleged that he was threatened by a Waller County prosecutor for speaking out about what he’d witnessed on that July 2015 day.

The Waller County district attorney denied the latter claim, while the Prairie View Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.

Bland, who was accused of assaulting trooper Brian Encinia, died in a Waller County jail three days after her arrest from an apparent suicide. The 28-year-old’s death sparked a national outcry as activists said she never should have been arrested and her family argued that she wouldn’t have taken her own life.

By the time Kelley arrived on the scene of what began as a traffic stop, he said that Bland was already handcuffed in the back of a squad car. He said he overheard Encinia, who had turned off his own body camera, admitting that he didn’t know what charge to lodge against Bland, but declaring that he’d come up with something. That’s one key part of Kelley’s incident report that he claims has been removed.

“My opinion is that he messed up,” Kelley told HuffPost. “He did not have probable cause to detain her after he pulled her out of the car.”

Another detail missing from the incident report, the officer said, is his observation that it looked like Bland had been struck in the head.

“She had a large mark on her head. Maybe she fell when she was in handcuffs. Maybe she got kicked,” Kelley told HuffPost. She complained about head pain but didn’t cooperate with emergency medical workers, he said.

In all, Kelley said that officials whittled his two-page rough draft down to less than a page and entered it into the official record without his approval. He said he also wanted to testify before the grand jury investigating Bland’s arrest, but that Assistant District Attorney Warren Diepraam threatened him.

“He told me it wouldn’t be good for my career,” Kelley said. “Then I told him I was going to talk to Sandra Bland’s mother’s attorney, and he told me I was going to be beneath the jail.”

Diepraam did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s inquiries.

Encinia was still indicted for perjury for alleged false statements about the arrest. The trooper was also fired.

Sandra Bland July 2017 update: here.

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