Two months ago, we took to our blog to address a horrific incident that was caught on camera – much like most things these days. This particular incident made national headlines as it involved the arrest of a Salt Lake City, Utah nurse. This wasn’t just any arrest, however. Chances are you’ve seen the video for yourself. Head nurse of University of Utah Hospital’s burn unit, Alex Wubbles was very aggressively arrested – simply doing her job.
In the video, which was filmed this past July, Wubbles is seen on the phone with her supervisor confirming the hospital’s rules about allowing blood to be drawn from unconscious patients. As we pointed out in our “FBI Investigating Unreasonable Arrest Of Utah Nurse” blog, there was a written agreement between the hospital and Salt Lake City police that indicated that there are only three circumstances by which the police may legally request blood from an unconscious patient. They are as follows:
1. If there is an electronic warrant.
2. If there is patient consent.
3. If the patient is under arrest.
Detective Jeff Payne was informed that the incident in question met none of the above mentioned criteria. As the video demonstrates, this inexplicably set Payne off. He then very aggressively placed Wubbles under arrest. When the video went viral, the uproar began. A wave of support for Wubbles came in from both inside and outside of the medical community. Her manhandling at the hands of Payne was simply uncalled for, inappropriate and unnecessarily violent.
This past week, we were pleased to discover that Detective Jeff Payne has been harshly disciplined by Salt Lake Police Chief Mike Brown. According to ModernNurse.com, Payne was relieved of his duties. His watch commander, Lt. James Tracey was also reprimanded by being demoted to the rank of officer.
“The action comes after an internal affairs report released Sept. 13, which found that both officers were in violation of department policy,” informs ModernNurse.com, “In a highly detailed ‘notice of decision’ letter, Brown said the two officers failed in their requirement to treat all citizens ‘equally with courtesy, consideration and dignity.’”
The website offered this excerpt from Brown’s letter: “You demonstrated extremely poor professional judgment (especially for an officer with 27 years of experience), which calls into question your ability to effectively serve the public and the department…You inappropriately acted against Ms. Wubbels.”
If you ask the team, here at Allegiant Experts, “inappropriately” is putting it mildly. Payne was shockingly very rough with Ms. Wubbels – she can be heard expressing that she was being hurt during the arrest. It also cannot be glossed over that Wubbels is a woman. Payne’s excessive use of force was unnecessarily violent. It was abuse. Furthermore, Wubbels was correctly doing her job.
We simply don’t know what Payne was thinking. The recorded incident is a clear display of police misconduct.
Are you an attorney trying a case involving misconduct in the medical field? Contact Allegiant Experts and inquire about how we can help. Call us at 407-217-5831 or email us at info@allegiantexperts.com.
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