AUSTIN, Texas – A Texas state trooper indicted over his arrest of a black woman who was later found dead in jail has been formally fired.
The Texas Department of Public Safety announcement Wednesday comes three months after Trooper Brian Encinia was charged with perjury. Encinia is accused of lying about his July 2015 arrest of Sandra Bland, whose confrontational traffic stop with the trooper was recorded on dashcam video.
Encinia can appeal his firing to a state board. His attorney has said the indictment isn't justified and that Encinia was looking out for his own safety.
The family of Bland, a 28-year-old black woman from Chicago, has sued the Department of Public Safety and local authorities who ran the jail where she was found dead. Her death was ruled a suicide.
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