Sandra Bland

The family said it was a last resort after being unable to get enough information about the case.

Bland, a 28-year-old Chicago-area woman, was found dead in her Waller County jail cell in Hempstead on July 13. Bland's family and others also have criticized Trooper Brian Encinia, who stopped Bland for failing to signal a lane change. Video of the stop shows that the confrontation quickly escalated after Encinia asked Bland to put out her cigarette.

Bland, a 28-year-old Chicago-area woman, was found dead in her Waller County jail cell in Hempstead, about 200 miles south of Dallas, on July 13, three days after her arrest. 

Officials say she used a plastic bag to hang herself, a finding her family has questioned. Bland's family and others also have criticized Trooper Brian Encinia, who stopped Bland for failing to signal a lane change.

Waller County Judge Trey Duhon said Tuesday that several hours of jail footage is being distributed to the media, partially in response to conspiracy theories about her death. 

He says these allegations have prompted death threats against county officials and that the most serious have been turned over to the FBI.

Elton Mathis, the Waller County district attorney, announced Monday that the group of lawyers would help his office make decisions in the case based on "credible evidence and not rumors."

He did not specify how the committee would work with his office, but said he still planned to present the Bland case to a grand jury in August for possible criminal charges.

Hundreds of people attended Sandra Bland's funeral near the Chicago suburb where she grew up. 

They celebrated her life with words and songs of praise, and her mother danced in the church aisle with her arms raised. She and other mourners, though, said they were still struggling to understand how a traffic stop for failing to use a turn signal escalated into a physical confrontation and landed her in the cell where authorities say she killed herself three days later.

Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith said Sandra Bland told a jailer about the previous suicide attempt sometime after her arrest on July 10.

Bland provided the information while being asked a series of questions posed to each person booked into the jail in Hempstead, about 60 miles northwest of Houston, the sheriff said.

He did not provide details about the conversation.

The Waller County Jail, about 60 miles northwest of Houston, is under investigation in the death of Sandra Bland, a Chicago-area woman whose family disputes authorities' finding that she hanged herself with a plastic garbage bag in her cell.

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards last week cited the jail for not providing documents proving that jailers in the past year had undergone training on interacting with inmates who are mentally disabled or potentially suicidal.

The Texas Rangers are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of Sandra Bland of the Chicago suburb of Naperville. She was found dead Monday morning in a Waller County jail cell in Hempstead, Texas, about 60 miles northwest of Houston.

"Based on the Sandy that I knew, that's unfathomable to me," Bland's sister, Sharon Cooper, said at a news conference in Chicago.