Bland, 28, was found dead in a police cell in 2015 three days after being stopped by a state trooper

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Texas authorities have denied withholding a cellphone video of a confrontational traffic stop involving Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old black woman who was found hanged in a jail cell near Houston in 2015.

Sandra Bland: video released nearly four years after death shows her view of arrest Read more

Bland, who was from outside Chicago, used her phone to briefly film a state trooper as he drew a stun gun and yelled “I will light you up!” while ordering her out of her car. She was dead three days later. Her death was ruled a suicide.

The video had not been publicly seen until it was aired this month by a Dallas TV station. Both lawmakers and Bland’s family say they had never seen the clip. They said the video proves that Brian Encinia, the trooper, had no reason to fear for his life and questioned whether he should have faced charges beyond perjury.

In a hearing at the Texas state capitol on Friday, Phillip Adkins, general counsel of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), responded to a Democratic legislator’s heated questions about why the 39-second clip had not surfaced until now.

Adkins said the DPS “has not illegally withheld evidence from Sandra Bland’s family or her legal team”.

Explanations by state officials were challenged, often sharply, by Democratic state representative Garnet Coleman, who said he never received the video despite asking for all evidence as chair of the House committee on county affairs.

He told Adkins he was handed a jumbled “data dump” of four discs and said the description of Bland’s cellphone video in the state’s investigative report was not an honest account.

“I disagree with you,” Adkins said. “I think it’s a fair and accurate description of the video.”

Coleman interrupted.

“You can disagree all day long, because I don’t have lying eyes, sir,” he said. “I’ve looked into this more than anyone.”

Play Video 0:45 Sandra Bland's own cellphone video surfaces from 2015 traffic stop – video

Bland’s mother, Geneva Reed-Veal, attended the hearing but did not testify. She told reporters she heard “a lot of discrepancies” but declined further comment.

Encinia was fired after being indicted for perjury and said he came to fear for his safety after stopping Bland for failing to signal a lane change. The perjury charge was dropped in exchange for Encinia agreeing to never work in law enforcement again.

Coleman said Encinia “got off light” and accused state officials of not being ethically forthcoming with their handling of the video.

Hours after the hearing, the Texas DPS released a copy of a letter sent in October 2015 to the Bland’s family attorney, Cannon Lambert, notifying him that a “cellphone download” of Bland’s phone was enclosed on a thumb drive. Lambert said he never saw the video in evidence turned over to him.

The Texas legislature adjourns on Monday, until 2021. One proposal that could still reach Governor Greg Abbott’s desk would make it more difficult to jail people for low-level misdemeanors, which some lawmakers sought in the wake of Bland’s death. Law enforcement groups, however, are fighting the measure.

In 2017, Coleman passed a Sandra Bland Act that included de-escalation training, independent investigations of county jail deaths and more racial profiling data. Advocates for criminal justice reforms have praised the changes but the act disappointed Bland’s family, who felt it didn’t address the circumstances leading up to her death.

• This article was amended on 31 May 2019 to remove a personal detail.