Thread by @AlexSamuelsx5

Good morning from the House County Affairs Committee meeting where officials from the DPS and AG's office will testify on the #SandraBland case following the release of new cellphone video footage. Watch live: texastribune.org/2019/05/24/san… #txlege

.@ronereynolds, who does not sit on the County Affairs committee, thanks Coleman for his "swift action." He says it's incumbent on lawmakers "to find the solutions" so there are no more Sandra Blands across the state.

Phillip Adkins, a DPS attorney says "the video Ms. Bland recorded during the traffic stop … was provided from counsel to Ms. Bland’s family."

@GFColeman is now needling Adkins on whether the family was allowed to keep the video and who else the video was sent to.

Coleman says no one knew about the new footage because it wasn't released to the public, but Adkins argues that the department released the video to @KXAN_News in 2017.

Coleman to Adkins: "Give me everything you have related to the Sandra Bland case in a documented and cited form and bring it to me. Everything."

Coleman, clearly frustrated DPS didn't give him the cell phone vid when they gave him info years ago:

"In that messy, data dump disk was the video in that disk?"

Adkins: "I don't know that it wasn't"

"Do you think that's an appropriate way to give information to a legislator?"

Coleman on the newly released Sandra Bland video: "Why didn't you give it to me? You knew I wanted it."

Adkins reiterating that it was an ongoing investigation.

Adkins says Sandra Bland's phone contains a 39-second clip, but the audio is identical to what's on the dashcam video. He says the cell phone video just shows the video from a different perspective.

Coleman says the dashcam video "isn't why we're here."

Coleman: "The new video shows something very enlightening in terms of the actions of the trooper."

"He says, 'I will light you up' when all she's holding is a cell phone. So you 'light people up' for filming?"

.@AlexHD37: When the phone was returned to [Sandra Bland's] estate was the video on it?

Adkins: The evidence was handled in such a way so that it was not corrupted.

Coleman: The video shows [Texas state trooper Brian Encinia] was not in fear of his safety, doesn't it?

Adkins: I don't see any evidence of why he would've been.

McCraw: There's no question he was not in fear of his life. We know that.

.@RepThierry146: Will you go on record today that you didn't turn over the cell phone video?

Adkins: "The cell phone video was turned over by Waller County." He adds that the cell phone video was given to Ms. Bland's counsel.

Adkins says the 39-second video recording by Ms. Bland was turned over to the family attorneys in October 2015.

.@RepThierry146: If Waller Co. turned that video over to [the family attorneys] we'll just have to find out why the attorney is saying he didn't see or look for it.

Adkins: We're presuming he didn't look for it.

Coleman: We’re going to have another hearing. I know we have to.

.@DanHuberty: When you provided the disk to the chairman and the attorneys, was there an exec summary or table of contents provided?

McCraw: We didn't do a file dump.

Coleman, interjects: Any reasonable person will say that's exactly what you did.

.@AlexHD37: To your knowledge, was the cell phone video in a format that would've been easily recognizable [to the family attorneys]?

Adkins: I know the counsel who represented us were easily able to find the video.

Background: There is a question about whether officials provided Bland's video to her family's attorneys during the discovery phase of their lawsuit.

Adkins said it was given to them. The family attorneys (who aren't here, per my knowledge) say they never saw the video.

Coleman to other representatives on the dais this morning: "We'll have to do another hearing, y'all, but I do want to hear from the AG today."

McCraw says the department asked Bland's family if they could post the dash cam video online after they got it, and the family had "no objections."

@AlexHD37: When you had the 39-second video, did you make that request as well?

McCraw says they didn't.

.@ronereynolds: Don't you think it would've been relevant to notify the family that in addition to the dash cam video there was cell phone footage?

McCraw: I don't know that we did, but I don't know that we didn't.

.@SenRoyceWest: During the Sandra Bland hearing, I asked you to release the dash cam video. But at the time it was released, were you aware of the cell phone video?

McCraw: "No sir." He says he became aware of it months later, but can’t nail down an exact timeline.

Next up: Darren McCarty and Nichole Bunker Henderson from the Texas AG's office.

Bunker Henderson says the file sent to Bland's lawyers "wasn't indexed."

"We are conceding that it was not indexed. That is my understanding."

@RepThierry146 says the omission of an index about what was on Bland's phone *could be* how her lawyers didn't see the 39-second video.

Next up: Jason Hermus with the Dallas Co. DA's office.

Looks like we're wrapping up. Committee stands adjourned subject to the call of the chair. #txlege