Officials: Sandra Bland spoke of previous suicide attempt

The 28-year-old woman who died in the Waller County jail three days after police arrested her in a controversial traffic stop told jailers during her intake that she previously had tried to commit suicide, authorities said Wednesday.

The information was discussed in a closed meeting with dozens of elected officials and law enforcement on Tuesday, shortly before authorities made public the video of the arrest of Sandra Bland by a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper on July 10. She was taken to the jail after her arrest.

Bland disclosed on a form at the jail that she previously had attempted suicide over that past year, although she also indicated she was not feeling suicidal at the time of her arrest, according to officials who attended the Tuesday meeting with local and state leaders investigating the case.

Read the full jail form below

Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, told the Chronicle that officials at the meeting said Bland's suicide attempt was related to losing a baby. But Turner said Bland's mental health history still remains "a little bit fuzzy."

Turner said Bland's disclosure about her suicide attempt to jail authorities should have led to increased supervision by jail staff. And it illustrates "the need to make sure we provide the care and the interventions for people who are having behavioral and mental health issues when people are coming into our county jail system."

Officials with the Waller County DA's office released the information Wednesday evening. The documents included two separate suicide-risk assessments completed hours apart the day she was arrested, July 10.

In one, completed at 5:32 p.m., Bland checked boxes asking if she had ever felt "very depressed" and if she was currently feeling that way. She also checked a box asking if she had felt like killing herself in the last year. The documentation also revealed she had tried to kill herself, with pills, in 2014. The reason Bland gave was "lost baby."

Finally, she checked a box saying she had experienced a recent loss, a godmother, in late 2014.

In a separate assessment, completed three hours later, the answers to the questions about depression and thoughts of killing oneself were both listed as "no."

A Waller County jailer who completed the assessment wrote "no" to the question of whether mental illness was suspected. The space next to a question asking whether a magistrate had been notified was answered only as "N/A."

Guidelines from the jail commission requires authorities to notify a magistrate or call a crisis hotline if jailers suspect mental illness or if an inmate says when being screened, among other things, they have tried to commit suicide in the past and had suicidal thoughts in the last year, experienced a recent loss or suffered from depression.

Wood, the Jail Commission director, said jailers often rescreen inmates after the initial shock of their arrest has warn off.

"There were several red flags and they should have had her screened based on that intake screening form," he said. The commission issued two notes of non-compliance to the jail, regarding how it hadn't performed face-to-face observations as required by law, and was unable to show documentation to prove it had given its jailers training regarding handling mentally ill or disabled inmates, as required by the jail's own guidelines.

Bland's relatives returned to Illinois on Wednesday. At a news conference there, Cannon Lambert, the family attorney, answered questions about Bland's mental health and the jail form documenting her previous attempt to kill herself.

"This family has no evidence that that is the case," Lambert told reporters there.

The revelations about the jail form came as Texas' top officials weighed in on the death and raised new questions about whether or not Bland should have been observed more closely by jailers, and whether or not staff with the Waller County Sheriff's Office should have taken additional steps after Bland was processed at the jail.

Inmates across Texas receive a screening when they arrive at jails, with questions about mental health issues, previous suicide attempts, and other questions.

"It's generally recommended or accepted that if there are certain positive answers, that should trigger contact with a local mental health authority or even notifying a crisis hotline," said Brandon Wood, Executive Director of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, declining to speak directly about Bland's case.

""Our hearts and prayers remain with the Bland family for their tragic loss. The family deserves answers," Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday, nine days after Bland was found dead in Waller County Jail. "The Texas Rangers, working in coordination with the FBI, will conduct a full and thorough investigation that will deliver those answers and work toward the ultimate goal of ensuring justice in this case."

In a statement, Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said Sandra Bland did non deserve to die in custody.

"While it is still not clear how Sandra Bland died, one thing is: the state of Texas and Waller County failed her. Policies were violated, state rules were ignored, and ultimately a young black woman died in the custody of her government," he said. "Sandra's government should have followed the rules. Sandra Bland should be alive today. For far too long, America has been failing to keep its promise to people of color. Black lives matter. We demand change."

The Waller County Jail in Hempstead, where Sandra Bland was held, is shown on Wednesday. The Waller County Jail in Hempstead, where Sandra Bland was held, is shown on Wednesday. Photo: Gary Coronado, Houston Chronicle Photo: Gary Coronado, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 134 Caption Close Officials: Sandra Bland spoke of previous suicide attempt 1 / 134 Back to Gallery

Hours after DPS officials released dashcam video of Bland's arrest, questions arose whether the video had been edited.

Bland, a 28-year-old Chicago native who moved to Texas for a temporary job at Prairie View A&M University, was arrested by a DPS trooper July 10 during a traffic stop near the school.

She was found hanging in Waller County jail three days later, to the dismay and disbelief of her family, who said it was "unfathomable" she would kill herself.

In an email to the Chronicle, DPS spokesman Tom Vinger wrote, "The video has not been edited. To eliminate any concerns as to the efficacy of the video, DPS previously requested the FBI examine the dash cam and jail video to ensure the integrity of the video. The entire video was uploaded to include the audio and video of the conversation the trooper had by telephone with his sergeant, which occurred after the arrest. Some of the video during this conversation was affected in the upload and is being addressed. We are working to repost the dash cam video."

The story of Bland's arrest and death has made international headlines, as social justice advocates call for answers and as hashtags like #ifidieinpolicecustody and #whathappenedtosandrabland have flourished on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.

On Tuesday, elected officials met in Prairie View, and renewed their pledge the case would be investigated thoroughly and transparently. The Texas Rangers, an investigative arm of the DPS, is looking into Bland's death. Last week, the DPS also asked for the FBI to join the investigation.

At that conference, Sen. Royce West, (D-Dallas), said he believed Bland's stop had been unlawful.

"She did not deserve to be placed into custody," West said.

Elton Mathis, Waller County District Attorney, said it would receive as much scrutiny as a murder investigation. His office has already released jail-house footage from the morning Bland's body was found hanging from a noose apparently made from a plastic bag.

The video released Tuesday showed an escalating confrontation with DPS Trooper Brian Encinia, a 30-year-old trooper who has been with the department for about a year, after the trooper asks Bland to put out a cigarette and she refuses.

He then orders her out of the car, and tries to yank her outside, even threatening her with a taser. As the situation escalated Bland becomes increasingly belligerent, the video shows. She asks repeatedly why she was being arrested, but does not receive an answer from Encinia. She curses at Encinia during a struggle while he is trying, off camera, to cuff her.

"This makes you feel read good, don't it? You're a real man now," she says.

But soon after the video was released, questions arose about whether or not it had been doctored.

As noted in a story on Medium, several key points in the video appear to have been edited, and in several points, video appears to have been looped.

At a point 32:37 into the 51-minute recording, "a white car drives into the left side of the frame, then promptly disappears in the middle of the road," Norton wrote, in the Medium story. "Seconds later, the same car drives back into the frame and subsequently turns left."

"At 33:08, the exact same footage from 32:37 is repeated, followed by the same second white car at 33:17."

In an earlier portion of footage, about halfway through the video, a man near Bland's car leaves the center of the frame.

"For the next 15 seconds, he walks toward the right of the frame and leaves," the Medium's Ben Norton wrote. "At 25:19, he suddenly appears again, promptly disappears, then returns at 25:22. The same footage of him walking is subsequently repeated."

See more videos from the case above.