Prairie View police officer Michael Kelley confessed that portions of his original incident report were removed, likely because they reflected poorly on Brian Encinia, the state trooper who arrested Sandra Bland.
One key part of Kelley’s incident report that was removed is Encinia’s damning admission.
Kelley says that by the time he arrived on the scene of what began as a traffic stop, Bland was already handcuffed in the back of a squad car, covered in dirt and grass. In the original report, Kelley said Encinia confessed that though Sandra Bland was already handcuffed, he still was plotting what to charge her with.
Officer Kelley also observed that it looked like Bland had been struck in the head.
“She had a large mark on her head,” Kelley said. “Maybe she got kicked.”
A former jailer also testified under oath in a deposition that he forged jail logs on the day Bland died, but the grand jury decided not to indict anyone from the sheriff's office in the case.
Most terrifying is learning that Assistant District Attorney Warren Diepraam used his position to threaten Kelley into silence. “He told me it wouldn’t be good for my career,” Kelley said. “I was going to talk to Sandra Bland’s mother’s attorney, and he told me I was going to be beneath the jail.”