Video shows Utah nurse screaming, being dragged into police car after refusing to let officer take blood from unconscious victim

[Suppressed]

Video shows Utah nurse screaming, being dragged into police car after refusing to let officer take blood from unconscious victim
By Pamela Manson | 16 hours ago
http://www.sltrib.com/pb/news/2017/08/31/utah-nurse-arrested-after-complying-with-hospital-policy-that-bars-taking-blood-from-unconscious-victim


Alex Wubbels, seen here in various images from police body cam video, was arrested after explaining to police that she couldn't draw a blood sample from an unconscious person at University Hospital. A Salt Lake City police detective asked for a blood sample. After explaining to the detective that the police needed a warrant, consent from the unconscious patient or that the patient needed to be under arrest before the blood sample could be drawn, she was arrested.

A nurse says she was assaulted and illegally arrested by a Salt Lake City police detective for following a hospital policy that does not allow blood draws from unconscious patients.

Footage from University Hospital and officer body cameras shows Detective Jeff Payne and nurse Alex Wubbels in a standoff over whether the policeman should be allowed to get a blood sample from a patient who had been injured in a July 26 collision in northern Utah that left another driver dead.

Wubbels says blood cannot be taken from an unconscious patient unless the patient is under arrest, unless there is a warrant allowing the draw or unless the patient consents. The detective acknowledges in the footage that none of those requirements is in place, but he insists that he has the authority to obtain the draw, according to the footage.

[...]

After Wubbels consults with several hospital officials and repeats the policy, Payne tells her she is under arrest and grabs her, pulling her arms behind her back and handcuffing her. The footage shows the detective dragging Wubbels out of the hospital and putting her inside a patrol car as she screams, “Help! Help! Somebody help me! Stop! Stop! I did nothing wrong!”

A University of Utah police officer and Department of Public Safety officers, who provide security for the hospital, were present at time of the arrest and did not intervene.

As he stands in the hospital parking lot after the arrest, Payne says to another officer that he wonders how this event will affect an off-duty job transporting patients for an ambulance company.

[...]

Tracy said in his report that he spoke on the phone with Wubbels and told her he believed that they had implied consent to get the sample, but she cut him off and said she would not allow the draw without a warrant. He then went to the hospital and tried to tell the nurse why she was in custody, but “she appeared to not want to hear my explanation,” Tracy wrote.

Porter, however, said “implied consent” has not been the law in Utah since 2007, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2016 that the Constitution permits warrantless breath tests in drunken-driving arrests, but not warrantless blood tests. She stressed that the patient was always considered the victim in the case and never was suspected of wrongdoing.

[...]

Excerpt.  Read more at http://www.sltrib.com/pb/news/2017/08/31/utah-nurse-arrested-after-complying-with-hospital-policy-that-bars-taking-blood-from-unconscious-victim


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihQ1-LQOkns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihQ1-LQOkns

[Oceander]

Hope she gets a good settlement and he gets fired without benefits. 

[edpc]

Blood testing would have already been ordered for chemistry screening and cell count, at a minimum - maybe for type and cross match, as well, depending on injury severity. 

Blood samples on patients are kept for a few days.  They could have gotten the proper warrant and tested later - probably within hours.  Completely unnecessary.

[Wingnut]

Hope she gets a good settlement and he gets fired without benefits.

Amen.   The "Respect My Authority" crap don't play well.

[jpsb]

Slowly law enforcement is becoming more like an occupation army then "protect and serve".

[Wingnut]

Slowly law enforcement is becoming more like an occupation army then "protect and serve".

They do shoot themselves in the foot quite often.  The days of Officer Friendly have been replaced with a para-military force of Roided up jackboots..

[jpsb]

They do shoot themselves in the foot quite often.  The days of Officer Friendly have been replaced with a para-military force of Roided up jackboots..

Yup.

[anubias]

Rather stupid on his part as he may come into the ER some day.  The police generally won't even write nurses traffic tickets, much less abuse them in such a manner.

[edpc]

Rather stupid on his part as he may come into the ER some day.  The police generally won't even write nurses traffic tickets, much less abuse them in such a manner.

I worked in the lab as a phlebotomist in college, 3-11 shift during summer.  Ran a red light on the way home and got pulled over.  The officer saw my attire and hospital ID, said be careful - don't end up on the wrong end of where I work, and sent me on my way.

[don-o]

The veneer of civilization is thin in the best of circumstances. That veneer is ripped off when those who have been given power to exercise force for the common good abuse that power. Such clear abuse must be met with swift and sure punishment.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Hope he's fired.

[ABX]

Bravo to that nurse. That took some moxie but she stood up for what was right.

One thing odd it seemed, the unconscious person was a victim in the crash, not the suspect who was being chased.

[GtHawk]

Blood testing would have already been ordered for chemistry screening and cell count, at a minimum - maybe for type and cross match, as well, depending on injury severity. 

Blood samples on patients are kept for a few days.  They could have gotten the proper warrant and tested later - probably within hours.  Completely unnecessary.

Yeah, but the cop couldn't walk out of the hospital with it, he would have no more right to those results without actual legal authority or a warrant than to have had blood drawn for his own sample.

[Polly Ticks]

Good for her.  It sounds like she was between a rock and a hard place, with an arrest on one side and HIPAA violations on the other.

[Oceander]

Slowly law enforcement is becoming more like an occupation army then "protect and serve".

Yup.  And handing out surplus military gear the way the Feds want to start doing again just accelerated the process. 

[edpc]

Yeah, but the cop couldn't walk out of the hospital with it, he would have no more right to those results without actual legal authority or a warrant than to have had blood drawn for his own sample.

Right - which is why I said it'd be easy to get the warrant.  They had more than enough for probable cause.  Any decent hospital lab has the equipment to analyze BAC and the test could have been easily ordered through the judge to a staff doctor.

[Cyber Liberty]

This story is very confusing. 

The patient was just driving down the road, minding his own business, when a pickup truck being driven by somebody being pursued by the Police slammed into him causing a burning wreck.  Then, the Police demand he prove he's not on drugs?  Why should he?  So then the Police Detective tries to bully the nurse into letting him take a blood sample from an innocent driver.  The detective obviously knows he's in the wrong, or he would have obtained a Warrant.

I submit the motivation of the Police, specifically the Detective, was to try to prove the truck driver somehow had contributory responsibility for the collision, because the driver of the Police car certainly did because of the hot pursuit.

CYA, folks.

[edpc]

Payne — who says he wanted the blood sample to protect the patient, not punish him...

Uh-huh....     

[Wingnut]

Son of a Bitch. 

Look at the crash.   Poor bastard never had a chance and they want his blood?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=32&v=o2iykqRxlj4

[Wingnut]

Alex Wubbels: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

http://heavy.com/news/2017/09/alex-wubbels-shaffer-nurse-skier-video/

That cop better be out of a job...and soon.

[edpc]

That cop better be out of a job...and soon.

Shift commander as well - unless he's lying about the order.

[roamer_1]

Right - which is why I said it'd be easy to get the warrant.  They had more than enough for probable cause.  Any decent hospital lab has the equipment to analyze BAC and the test could have been easily ordered through the judge to a staff doctor.

Technically time sensitive... But the officer could have requested the blood drawn and preserved and returned with a warrant thereafter.

[Polly Ticks]

Technically time sensitive... But the officer could have requested the blood drawn and preserved and returned with a warrant thereafter.

I'm no lawyer, but based on the info in the article and the video, I don't see how they could show probable cause to support a warrant.  The guy was driving down the road, minding his own business.

[roamer_1]

This story is very confusing. 

I submit the motivation of the Police, specifically the Detective, was to try to prove the truck driver somehow had contributory responsibility for the collision, because the driver of the Police car certainly did because of the hot pursuit.

CYA, folks.

Probably not. Probably covering the bases so that when the defense raises the question at trial, the evidence is there to refute the claim that the victim had 'contributory responsibility'...

It need not be nefarious, albeit that the thing was handled wrongly.

[Suppressed]

Probably not. Probably covering the bases so that when the defense raises the question at trial, the evidence is there to refute the claim that the victim had 'contributory responsibility'...

Yup.