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 The preliminary results also found high levels of marijuana in
Bland's system, although officials are seeking additional tests to
confirm when and how much she might have smoked or swallowed, Waller
County Assistant District Attorney Warren Diepraam said.
"The evidence that we reviewed up to this point supports those
findings," he said of the initial suicide ruling.
Bland was pulled over on July 10 near Prairie View, Texas, northwest
of Houston, for failing to signal a lane change. After the incident
escalated into an altercation between her and the white trooper,
Bland was taken into custody and charged with assaulting an officer.
She was found hanging in her jail cell on July 13 with a plastic
trash bag around her neck.
Bland's traffic stop and subsequent death have been taken up by
activists who say the case is the latest example of racial bias and
excessive force by U.S. law enforcement.
Bland's family previously acknowledged a Facebook post by the
28-year-old Chicago-area native in which she discussed struggling
with depression, but it disputed the suicide ruling.
 While officials have said they are handling the investigation like a
murder probe, they announced on Thursday there was no evidence in
the autopsy to support a finding of murder. But the plastic trash
bag was being tested further.
Diepraam said it was unclear whether Bland ingested marijuana before
or after she was jailed.
Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith, whose office operates the jail
where Bland died, searched her cell for evidence of marijuana and
found nothing, Diepraam said.
However, he added that the high level of the drug in Bland's system
could have influenced her mood while in jail.
"It is a mood amplifier, so it is relevant in our opinion to
determine whether or not marijuana may have played a role in her
death as well, exacerbating existing conditions," he said.
Bland had lacerations and abrasions on her wrists that could have
been received when she was handcuffed during her arrest, he said.
She also had about 30 healing cuts on her left arm that occurred two
to four weeks before, he said.
An attorney for the Bland family, Cannon Lambert, before Diepraam's
press conference called the autopsy "defective."
"The family's confidence is shaken by the continued discrepancies
that are surfacing," Lambert said in an email.
Waller County officials said another autopsy was not needed, just
further testing of evidence.
Bland's body was returned to the Chicago area on Wednesday in
preparation for a funeral on Saturday.
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NOT VIEWED AS SUICIDE RISK
Smith told Reuters on Wednesday that the jailers on duty when Bland
was admitted felt she was not a suicide risk based on their
observations and her statement on the questionnaire that she was not
suicidal at the time.
However, according to the questionnaire, Bland also marked that she
had tried to commit suicide last year by taking pills after the loss
of a baby. She also said she had epilepsy.
Bland's full autopsy and toxicology reports may be released on
Friday.
The jail where Bland died was cited three days after her death by
the Texas Commission on Jail Standards for failing to complete
visual face-to-face observations of inmates every 60 minutes as
required by state regulations.
Bland was being held alone in a cell designed for up to five women
when she was found dead.
Bland made three calls from the jail the day after her arrest: to
her sister, a local friend and a bail bondsman, said Trey Duhon,
Waller County's administrative leader. The bondsman spoke to family
members about arranging Bland's bail, but nothing came of that,
Duhon said.
In the call to her friend, LaVaughn Mosley, Bland talked about
having her bail set at $5,000, ABC-owned TV station KTRK reported.
"I’m still just at a loss for words, honestly, about this whole
process, how this switching lanes with no signal turned into all of
this I don’t even know," Bland said in the message, according to the
Houston station. "Umm, But I am still here, so just call me back
when you can.”
Reuters was not able to reach Mosley to confirm the voicemail.
(Reporting by Ben Klayman in Detroit, additional reporting by David
Bailey in Minneapolis; Editing by Andrew Hay and Cynthia Osterman)
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