Federal judge accepts $1.9 million settlement in Sandra Bland lawsuit

Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis said Bland's family had made "valid points that she did have a lot of things going on in her life that were good."

HOUSTON – A federal judge accepted the $1.9 million settlement Wednesday in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Sandra Bland.

The order was the final step in closing the case that surrounded the death of Bland while she was in the Waller County Jail.

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Bland was arrested in July 2015 after she was pulled over by a Texas state trooper for failure to use her turn signal. Three days later, she was found hanging from a partition inside a Hemstead jail cell.

Investigators ruled Bland’s death a suicide, but her family maintained she did not kill herself.

The settlement also called for policy changes at the jail, including additional training for jail employees, adding on-duty medical staff and implementing electronic cell checks.

Dashcam video of Bland’s arrest and the circumstances of her death provoked national outrage.