Out for Blood
“I either go away with blood in vials or body in tow,” said Salt Lake City, Utah, Police Det. Jeff Payne. He wanted the blood of unconscious truck driver (and Rigby, Idaho, reserve police officer) William Gray, the innocent victim of a traffic crash. Nurse Alex Wubbels was telling him hospital policy didn’t permit police to take the blood of a patient without a warrant, an arrest, or consent. She called her supervisor, but the detective said he was obeying his, and that “implied consent” allowed him to draw blood. Her subsequent arrest was recorded by the body camera of an officer from another department, who didn’t intervene. Utah law withdrew the “implied consent” rule he was invoking a decade ago; the U.S. Supreme Court later ruled police need warrants for blood draws. Payne was removed from the police blood-draw unit, and later suspended entirely. The district attorney is investigating, and the police chief and mayor have apologized to Nurse Wubbels. (AC/Salt Lake Tribune, CNN, Deseret News) ...Because Payne abused her, or because the video went viral?Story Update: Wubbels was released without charge. Payne was fired, and his supervisor was demoted two ranks (from Lieutenant to Officer). Salt Lake City and the University of Utah agreed to settle the incident for $500,000. Wubbels said that part of her settlement will go toward efforts geared to making police body cam footage more accessible to the public. At the end of the year, Medscape named Wubbells — again, a nurse — as one of the 13 Best Physicians of 2017.
This story is in True’s book collections, in Volume 24.
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