Officer Jeff Payne Assaulted and Arrested Nurse Alex Wubbels For Doing Her Job

This is what will happen in America now that _____ has vowed to arm police with military-style weapons and, perhaps, military-style tactics.

Alex Wubbels is the head nurse at the University of Utah Hospital’s burn unit and you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone, patient, employer, friend, who says she is anything but professional at work. And yet, apparently, her professionalism is what caused her to be arrested earlier this month after she told a Salt Lake City police detective that he wasn’t allowed to draw blood from a badly injured patient.

Here’s how this went down ...

It all started when a suspect sped away from police in a pickup truck after smashing head-on into a truck driver; medics sedated the truck driver, who was severely burned, and took him to the University of Utah Hospital where he was in a coma. Jeff Payne, a trained police phlebotomist, was sent to collect blood from the truck driver and to check for illicit substances, to reportedly to protect the trucker, who was not suspected of a crime. Payne asked Alex Wubbels to draw the blood and she refused because he had no warrant, because the patient was unconscious, and because the patient had not given consent.

A group of hospital officials, security guards and nurses watch as Payne stands in a doorway waiting as hospital officials talk on the phone. A fellow officer asks Payne why they don’t “just write a search warrant” and Payne responds that they “don’t have PC [probable cause].” But then he adds that he’ll arrest Wubbels if she doesn’t allow him to draw blood.

After several minutes, Wubbels shows Payne a printout of the hospital’s policy on obtaining blood samples from patients, and, with her supervisor on speakerphone, she calmly tells them they can’t proceed unless they have a warrant or patient consent, or if the patient is under arrest:

“The patient can’t consent, he’s told me repeatedly that he doesn’t have a warrant, and the patient is not under arrest, so I’m just trying to do what I’m supposed to do, that’s all.”

Payne replies:

“So I take it without those in place, I’m not going to get blood.”

Wubbels’ supervisor can be heard on the phone asking:

“Why are you blaming the messenger?”

“She’s the one that has told me no.”

And that’s when the supervisor warns Payne that he’s about to make a mistake and Payne seems to lose it. He walks toward Wubbels and tries to knock the phone from her hand:

“We’re done here.”

Payne grabs Wubbels by the arms and shoves her through the automatic doors outside the building and Wubbels can be heard screaming:

“Help! Help me! Stop! You’re assaulting me! Stop! I’ve done nothing wrong! This is crazy!”

Payne presses her against a wall, pulls her arms behind her back and handcuffs her. Then he removes her from the hospital and puts her in his car where another officer tells her she should have allowed Payne to collect the blood; he says she obstructed justice—which is a lie—and prevented Payne from doing his job.

Police state. America under _____.

Sam Gill, the Salt Lake County District Attorney, wants a criminal investigation into the incident, while Salt Lake Police Chief Mike Brown and Mayor Jackie Biskupski have apologized to Wubbels, with Biskupski saying:

“I extend a personal apology to Ms. Wubbels for what she has been through for simply doing her job.”

The mayor and Alex Wubbels are right; she was only doing her job and, unlike the police officer, Jeff Payne, she was following the law. The U.S. Supreme Court has explicitly ruled that blood can only be drawn from patients for probable cause, and with a warrant.

Salt Lake police spokesman Sgt. Brandon Shearer initially announced that Payne remained on active duty, but late last week it was learned that Jeff Payne and another unnamed officer had been placed on administrative leave. Wubbels, who was not criminally charged, and why would she as the victim of an assault by a police officer, has not ruled out legal action.

“I just feel betrayed, I feel angry, I feel a lot of things and I’m still confused. I want to see people do the right thing first and I want to see this be a civil discourse. If that’s not something that’s going to happen and there is refusal to acknowledge the need for growth and the need for re-education, then we will likely be forced to take that type of step. But people need to know that this is out there.”

And we need that civil discourse, especially in light of _____’s promise to arm local police with grenade launchers and military vehicles. I mean, imagine what Jeff Payne might have tried if he’d been heavily armed ...

Washington Post