Sandra Bland
Six months after arresting Sandra Bland during a now-infamous traffic stop, state trooper Brian Encinia on Thursday returned to the Waller County jail where Bland died – this time to surrender to authorities on perjury charges.
Encinia, 30, surrendered to Texas Rangers after a Waller County judge signed his arrest warrant, Sheriff R. Glenn Smith said. The Rangers took the trooper to the jail, where he arrived in a gray pickup at 3:26 p.m.
Encinia was fingerprinted, photographed and released on a $2,500 bond.
[…]
Darrell Jordan, one of five special prosecutors, said the grand jury’s indictment stemmed from Encinia’s statement, in an affidavit he filed in Bland’s arrest, that he pulled her out of her Hyundai Azera to “further conduct a safe traffic investigation.”
“They just didn’t believe it,” Jordan said, referring to the grand jurors.
Bland’s family and activists who have followed the case said the perjury charge was insufficient. Geneva Reed-Veal, Bland’s mother, compared the indictment to a “slap on the wrist.”
Cannon Lambert, who is representing the family in a civil lawsuit, questioned why the grand jury had not agreed on harsher charges, such as battery or false arrest. Encinia’s lawyer, Larkin Eakin, said Thursday the trooper planned to plead not guilty. The grand jury, Eakin said, misinterpreted Encinia’s statement.
“He is obviously upset but feels very much that he’s not guilty, that that particular phrase he used (in his affidavit) was proper,” he said.
See here for the background. He will be pleading not guilty, while also appealing his termination from DPS. I don’t want to make too big a deal about it because the respectful way that Trooper Encinia was treated during his arrest and arraignment should be the default and not the exception, but the contrast between how he was treated and how Sandra Bland was treated couldn’t be more stark. As for the matter of whether the charge against Encinia represents some kind of justice or not, I’ll simply note that such a question is predicate on whether or not he gets convicted. As commenter Steve Houston notes, there is considerable doubt about that. Texas Monthly has more.