A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday by the mother of Sandra Bland, the Illinois woman found hanging in a Texas jail cell last month, contends that Bland should never have been arrested and that she was later held in dangerous conditions without proper supervision. The wrongful-death lawsuit named the Texas state trooper, Brian T. Encinia, who made the arrest, and two guards at the Waller County Jail, where Bland died, as defendants, along with the Texas Department of Public Safety and the county.The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Houston, said that Encinia made up a reason to arrest Bland and that jailers failed to react when she refused meals and “had bouts of uncontrollable crying.”“We are looking for Waller County and for individuals involved in this situation to take accountability,” Cannon Lambert, a lawyer for Bland’s family, said at a news conference in Houston. “This family is frustrated.”Encinia pulled over Bland on July 10 for failing to signal a lane change, and video from a dashboard camera shows it was initially an ordinary traffic stop. But the encounter intensified when Encinia asked Bland to extinguish her cigarette and she questioned the request. The trooper eventually ordered Bland out of the car, threatened her with a Taser and arrested her on a charge of assaulting a public servant.Many have questioned the sequence of events that led to the arrest. Tuesday’s lawsuit, filed by Geneva Reed-Veal, Bland’s mother, said Encinia “demonstrated a deliberate indifference to and conscious disregard for the constitutional rights and safety of Sandra Bland.”The lawsuit said Encinia used force inappropriately during the incident, and “caused Sandra Bland to suffer injury and death.”After her arrest, Bland, 28, was jailed over that weekend in Waller County, a rural area northwest of Houston with a history of racial divisions. On July 13, according to the Texas authorities, she was found hanged in her cell from a trash can liner. Officials said an autopsy found her injuries consistent with suicide, a finding her friends and relatives have questioned.“That baby did not take herself out of here,” Reed-Veal said at her daughter’s funeral in the Chicago suburbs.Bland had arrived in Waller County days before her arrest to accept a job at Prairie View A&M University, her alma mater. In recent months, Bland, who was black, had posted videos on social media questioning how the police interact with African-Americans.Texas officials said Bland told her jailers she had attempted suicide in the past. Despite having that information, the lawsuit says, jail officials placed Bland in a cell “with a variety of inappropriate items,” including a large garbage can, garbage bags and exposed beams. The lawsuit accused jail guards of failing to check on Bland frequently enough.Summer Blackwell, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing a policy not to discuss pending litigation. Blackwell said the department’s investigation into Bland’s death was continuing.The Waller County district attorney’s office referred press inquiries to Larry J. Simmons Jr., a lawyer who said he would represent the county as outside counsel and plans to file a response soon.“The county expresses its sympathy to Sandra Bland’s family,” Simmons said in an emailed statement. “We look forward to presenting all the evidence to the court, in the context of the applicable standards for civil liability, and intend to vigorously defend the case.”Encinia has been put on administrative duty pending an investigation, and Sheriff R. Glenn Smith of Waller County said he was considering possible disciplinary action against jail staff members.On Tuesday, Lambert, the family lawyer, reiterated calls for the Justice Department to investigate Bland’s death and seemed to allude to the case of Samuel DuBose in Cincinnati, a black man who was fatally shot by a University of Cincinnati police officer during a traffic stop on July 19. The officer, Ray Tensing, was charged with murder and fired. Lambert said Encinia should also be terminated.“He could be relieved from his responsibilities,” Lambert said. “Look at Cincinnati. That’s bold, decisive action. We’re asking for bold, decisive action. The fact that it hasn’t happened yet is a frustrating thing.” -2015 New York Times News Service..