Utah cop who arrested nurse over blood draw fired from second job

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Utah cop who arrested nurse over blood draw fired from second job

 

FILE PHOTO: Nurse Alex Wubbels is shown during an incident at University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S., in this still photo taken from police body-worn camera video taken July 26, 2017 and provided September 1, 2017. Courtesy Salt Lake City Police Department/Handout via REUTERS

 

(Reuters) - A Utah police detective accused of assaulting and unlawfully arresting a nurse after she refused to let him take a blood sample from an unconscious patient without a warrant was fired on Tuesday from his second job as a part-time ambulance driver.

 

Jeff Payne was terminated from his job at Gold Cross Ambulance service over comments he made while taking nurse Alex Wubbels into custody on July 26 which were captured on his body camera, Gold Cross president Mike Moffitt told Reuters.

 

The comments suggested that Payne would bring transients to University of Utah Hospital, where Wubbels worked, while transporting "good" patients to another facility, Moffitt said.

 

"Those remarks are just not reflective of our company's philosophy and the service we provide and because of that behaviour we felt we had to separate ways," Moffitt said. "His comments reflected poorly on the company and violated several company policies."

 

Reuters was not able to contact representatives for Payne, who has been placed on administrative leave by the Salt Lake City Police Department over the incident, which made headlines when Wubbels' lawyers released the body camera footage.

 

The footage shows Payne roughly handcuffing Wubbels and shoving her into an unmarked squad car after she refused to let him draw blood from an unconscious man, who had been badly injured when he crashed at the end of a police chase.

 

Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski and Police Chief Mike Brown have since apologized to Wubbels and District Attorney Sam Gilled for a criminal investigation into the incident.

 

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Sandra Maler)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-09-06

[khwaibah]

This nurse will own both cops, the police department, the hospital, Salt lake City and the State of Utah.

[LazySlipper]

 

Wow... good job nurse. 

 

... wonder if the driver was drunk--high--both--or crazy. Guess that is what the cop wanted to know to and now he will never know. 

 

 

[Briggsy]

4 minutes ago, LazySlipper said:

 

Wow... good job nurse. 

 

... wonder if the driver was drunk--high--both--or crazy. Guess that is what the cop wanted to know to and now he will never know. 

 

 

Are you suggesting the nurse should have overruled her own department manager, ignored hospital regulations, broken the law and put her job on the line just because she was bullied by a cop who wanted to circumvent the rules?

 

If you are unhappy with the outcome, I suggest you focus on the law rather than the nurse who was conscientiously doing her job.

[steve187]

34 minutes ago, LazySlipper said:

 

Wow... good job nurse. 

 

... wonder if the driver was drunk--high--both--or crazy. Guess that is what the cop wanted to know to and now he will never know. 

 

 

from the original thread, it seems the driver in question was an innocent driver of a vehicle that was in collision with another vehicle that was being 'chased' by police.

[LazySlipper]

1 hour ago, steve187 said:

from the original thread, it seems the driver in question was an innocent driver of a vehicle that was in collision with another vehicle that was being 'chased' by police.

 

should have read it all...

 

Good on the nurse and shame on the cop... what a jack arse...

[Guest]

2 hours ago, khwaibah said:

This nurse will own both cops, the police department, the hospital, Salt lake City and the State of Utah.

I think the people of Utah should own all of those things. 

 

It seems that the police has become a force of it's own, above people, which thinks it own best over the people. 

 

No, why the foremans, who were actually responsible, were not arrested?

 

Edited September 6, 2017 by Guest

[LazySlipper]

1 hour ago, Briggsy said:

Are you suggesting the nurse should have overruled her own department manager, ignored hospital regulations, broken the law and put her job on the line just because she was bullied by a cop who wanted to circumvent the rules?

 

If you are unhappy with the outcome, I suggest you focus on the law rather than the nurse who was conscientiously doing her job.

No not at all. I'm on the nurse's side all the way on this one.

[Blue Muton]

42 minutes ago, LazySlipper said:

No not at all. I'm on the nurse's side all the way on this one.

Yes, indeed your "now he will never know" comment is clearly down to him neglecting the agreed  protocol and failing to secure the required warrant. Incidentally my Aunt is a nurse in Utah, I would be very happy for her if this had happened to her! (just to be clear I love my aunt but think a bit of shoving, tears and humiliation would be more than compensated for, without wishing to downplay how unpleasant this must have been for the nurse or how inappropriately the cop behaved).

[ehs818]

To Protect And Serve

[dick dasterdly]

So its a case of ridiculous rules and laws - exacerbated by a bullying cop?

 

Apologies for the italics - laptop playing up, and I can't get rid of them. 

[JCauto]

3 hours ago, LazySlipper said:

 

Wow... good job nurse. 

 

... wonder if the driver was drunk--high--both--or crazy. Guess that is what the cop wanted to know to and now he will never know. 

 

 

Apparently they were trying to gain compromising information on the VICTIM, because there was potential culpability on the part of the police who were undertaking a high-speed chase that caused the accident. So they were not following their own police protocols, this resulted in the accident that killed the one being chased and severely injured this innocent truck driver. And as a result, this cop bullied the nurse who was following the agreed upon rules that the hospital had made WITH the police.

 

There's nothing acceptable in terms of what this cop, or those who obviously were supporting him in doing this so they could protect their department from liability, is doing. 

[Blue Muton]

1 hour ago, dick dasterdly said:

So its a case of ridiculous rules and laws - exacerbated by a bullying cop?

 

Apologies for the italics - laptop playing up, and I can't get rid of them. 

No. There are no ridiculous rules or laws in play here. There is a cop, who was assigned to perform specific duties without making himself aware of the agreed protocols pertaining to those duties. These protocols are both sensible and simple to understand. Said cop exacerbated the situation, showing extremely poor judgment in failing to consult his superiors when told by numerous officials at the hospital that there was no legal basis for doing what he was insisting be done. He then compounded it all by assaulting and unlawfully detaining the nurse.

 

p.s. How's Muttley?

Edited September 6, 2017 by Blue Muton
Afterthought.

[JCauto]

2 minutes ago, Blue Muton said:

No. There are no ridiculous rules or laws in play here. There is a cop, who was assigned to perform specific duties without making himself aware of the agreed protocols pertaining to those duties. These protocols are both sensible and simple to understand. Said cop exacerbated the situation, showing extremely poor judgment in failing to consult his superiors when told by numerous officials at the hospital that there was no legal basis for doing what he was insisting be done. He then compounded it all by assaulting and unlawfully detaining the nurse.

 

p.s. How's Muttley?

It's highly unlikely (actually it's not possible) that this guy was unaware of the agreed protocols, he worked regularly in the blood collection unit for years, and would have been trained about this numerous times. It's also highly unlikely that he did this on his own without any "nod or a wink" from his superiors - as noted in my previous post, the Police had a very good motive for breaking the rules and getting that sample regardless. And it's extremely unlikely that in a militaristic and hierarchical organization like the Police that this guy would act on his own without authorization.

[LazySlipper]

42 minutes ago, JCauto said:

because there was potential culpability on the part of the police who were undertaking a high-speed chase that caused the accident.

My thoughts exactly... passing the buck to the innocent guy. Let's say he had a beer or two or smoked a doobie some time ago then the cops would have called foul. Then they could have claimed justifiable circumstances.

 

I hate the "Dog The Bounty Hunter" "American Warrior" mentality that now reigns in the US... Give me the '70 s again. 

[Blue Muton]

39 minutes ago, JCauto said:

It's highly unlikely (actually it's not possible) that this guy was unaware of the agreed protocols, he worked regularly in the blood collection unit for years, and would have been trained about this numerous times. It's also highly unlikely that he did this on his own without any "nod or a wink" from his superiors - as noted in my previous post, the Police had a very good motive for breaking the rules and getting that sample regardless. And it's extremely unlikely that in a militaristic and hierarchical organization like the Police that this guy would act on his own without authorization.

Thanks. I was giving him/them the benefit of the doubt on that point, what (in hindsight and with your prompt) I didn't make clear was the ignorance of the protocols was the "least bad" scenario. It would have been better to have written:

 

"There is a cop, who was assigned to perform specific duties, who at best failed to make himself aware of the agreed protocols pertaining to those duties and at worst was consciously and deliberately trying to flout the rules and laws in order to mitigate or cover up possible misconduct by fellow officers."

[silent]

3 hours ago, LazySlipper said:

My thoughts exactly... passing the buck to the innocent guy. Let's say he had a beer or two or smoked a doobie some time ago then the cops would have called foul. Then they could have claimed justifiable circumstances.

 

I hate the "Dog The Bounty Hunter" "American Warrior" mentality that now reigns in the US... Give me the '70 s again. 

POTUS will likely step in again and exonerate the buffoon for his past service.

[FritsSikkink]

8 hours ago, LazySlipper said:

 

Wow... good job nurse. 

 

... wonder if the driver was drunk--high--both--or crazy. Guess that is what the cop wanted to know to and now he will never know. 

 

 

He won't be a cop for long anymore.

[atyclb]

there has been lots of hanky panky in the usa regarding ambulance services, 

 

"In 2006, the Justice Department settled Medicare fraud charges with American Medical Response (AMR). With 19,800 employees, AMR is one of the largest EMS providers in the United States. The company paid $9 million to settle allegations that it was engaged in illegal kickback or “swapping” arrangements with some hospitals in Texas."   https://thedoctorweighsin.com/ambulance-fraud-costs-medicare-5-billion-a-year/

 

 

The “epidemic” of ambulance fraud

The final chapter hasn’t been written in the LifeStar case. There have been many other examples of fraud within the EMS industry, however. So much fraud, in fact, that some FBI and Medicare officials call it an epidemic. One federal prosecutor described the private ambulance system this way,

“It’s a cash cow. It’s basically like a taxi service except an extremely expensive one that the taxpayers are financing.”

[Foozool]

Unfortunately some US cops acting worse than gangs. I guess some of them forget that what their job really is,  "to serve and protect" as we see on the police cars. 

 

[Blue Muton]

11 hours ago, Foozool said:

Unfortunately some US cops acting worse than gangs. I guess some of them forget that what their job really is,  "to serve and protect" as we see on the police cars. 

 

You're absolutely correct to say it is "some" of them. The real tragedy in this is that the rest of them don't get them booted out, allowing them, in the main, to get away with it.

[Langsuan Man]

Stupid untrained unaware cop, simple explanation

 

Even if he did want the blood drawn for the benefit of the patient (victim) a pretty simple solution,  when a person is unconscious and cannot give consent,  is for a relative to give permission, could have just been verbal over the phone, but that option would have required a little thought but the cops superiority  complex kicked in before his brain 

[Scott]

A call to a judge could have probably gotten a warrant for the blood, although the issue of 'probable cause' for taking the blood might have been a sticky point.  

 

Illegally taking the blood would have ruled it inadmissible in any legal action.   However, I suspect he was more interested in protecting this guy from any accusation of drug or alcohol use since the patient was affiliated with the police.  

[atyclb]

the cop has a loose screw. normally hospital er staff and police are allies, colleagues and friends . even if some cops are brazen tough guys on the outside with criminals.

[Blue Muton]

4 minutes ago, atyclb said:

the cop has a loose screw. normally hospital er staff and police are allies, colleagues and friends . even if some cops are brazen tough guys on the outside with criminals.

That's right, and to think that his second job was driving an ambulance, quite bonkers!