Salt Lake City Policeman Assaults Nurse – Keeps Job

Why the Police Need to Help Themselves and Society

The huge, huge majority of law enforcement officers are great people dedicated to public safety and service. The few who violate the law, the rights of citizens and commit other offenses against the public get the publicity. And they need to be stopped by the only people who can stop them, their fellow officers.

In Utah a police detective got downright violent when a nurse refused to allow him to draw blood from an unconscious person. She was right he was wrong, she was assaulted and arrested.

By all accounts, the head nurse at the University of Utah Hospital’s burn unit was professional and restrained when she told a Salt Lake City police detective he wasn’t allowed to draw blood from a badly injured patient.

The detective didn’t have a warrant, first off. And the patient wasn’t conscious, so he couldn’t give consent. Without that, the detective was barred from collecting blood samples — not just by hospital policy, but by basic constitutional law.

Still, Detective Jeff Payne insisted that he be let in to take the blood, saying the nurse would be arrested and charged if she refused.

And did he follow through, you betcha.

Payne snapped. He seized hold of the nurse, shoved her out of the building and cuffed her hands behind her back. A bewildered Wubbels screamed “help me” and “you’re assaulting me” as the detective forced her into an unmarked car and accused her of interfering with an investigation.

The explosive July 26 encounter was captured on officers’ body cameras and is now the subject of an internal investigation by the police department, as the Salt Lake Tribune reported Thursday. The videos were released by the Tribune, the Deseret News and other local media.

On top of that, Wubbels was right. The U.S. Supreme Court has explicitly ruled that blood can only be drawn from drivers for probable cause, with a warrant.

And what happened to the offending officer?

Salt Lake police spokesman Sgt. Brandon Shearer told local media that Payne had been suspended from the department’s blood draw unit but remained on active duty. Shearer said Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown had seen the video and called it “very alarming,” according to the Deseret News.

C'mon police in Salt Lake, get rid of these problems. Help us help you help us.

Update:  The police involved are facing disciplinary action.  But only because of the publicity.