A Chicago-area woman found dead in a Texas jail cell in July — and whose case has become part of a national debate about how the police treat African-Americans — committed suicide because family and friends wouldn’t pay her bail, according to a court filing in the ongoing legal battle over her death.
“It is apparent now that [Sandra] Bland’s inability to secure her release from jail — and her family and friends’ refusal to bail her out of jail — led her to commit suicide,”
according to a motion filed this week in federal court in Houston on behalf of Waller County, Texas, officials as part of an ongoing legal fightbetween them and Bland’s family.

Bland, 28, was arrested during a confrontational traffic stop in Texas three days before she was found dead in her Waller County Jail cell on July 13. An autopsy report released later that month found Bland used a plastic trash bag to hang herself.  Bland’s family has questioned the need for Bland’s arrest and the way she was treated while in jail. They have filed a wrongful death suit against Waller County officials, alleging, among other things, that jail officials were reckless in how they treated her while in custody.