Sandra Bland found dead in jail after arrest in Hempstead, Texas

The mother of Sandra Bland, a black woman who died last summer in a Texas jail after a contentious traffic stop, has reached a $1.9 million settlement in her wrongful-death lawsuit, her attorney said Thursday.

Local officials in Texas insisted the agreement was not yet final, but the mother's attorney said the deal was "absolute" and that the family's lawsuit would be dismissed in several days.

Bland, who was from the Chicago area, died in her cell days after she was pulled over by a white Texas state trooper for a minor traffic offense. Her death was ruled a suicide, and Bland's family later sued Waller County and the Texas Department of Public Safety.

The settlement includes a requirement that the jail have a nurse or emergency medical technician on duty 24 hours a day, the family's Chicago-based attorney, Cannon Lambert, told The Associated Press in an interview at his office.

The jail must also install electronic sensors to ensure guards are checking on detainees, and the defendants agree to help push for statewide legislation in Bland's name that would require training to ensure jail personnel are properly caring for inmates, Lambert said.

Bland's mother, Geneva Reed-Veal, said those requirements beyond the monetary settlement are what really mattered to her, and she vowed to make sure they are carried out.

"Today is a victory for all mothers across the country," she told the AP. "It was never just about Sandy. It was about all mothers who have lost their children unjustly to police brutality, to senseless gun violence." (AP)


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