Utah police reveal patient defended by heroic nurse was a cop

[Judi Lynn]

Source: The Hill


BY MALLORY SHELBOURNE - 09/03/17 02:13 PM EDT

A Utah police department thanked the “heroic” nurse who informed law enforcement that it was against hospital policy to draw blood from an unconscious patient without a warrant. The department also revealed the patient was actually a reserve officer for their department.

In a statement on Facebook, the Rigby Police Department identified the victim as William Gray, a reserve officer who was “severely injured” in a car accident during his truck driving job.

“The Rigby Police Department would like to thank the nurse involved and hospital staff for standing firm, and protecting Officer Gray’s rights as a patient and victim. Protecting the rights of others is truly a heroic act,” the department said.


Salt Lake City's mayor and police chief on Friday apologized after footage emerged of a Utah law enforcement officer arresting a Utah University Hospital nurse, who said she was assaulted and unlawfully detained after informing police of the hospital’s policy.
The nurse, Alex Wubbels, said she told police that hospital policy does not allow blood to be drawn from an unconscious patient without a warrant.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/349072-police-department-thanks-heroic-utah-nurse-for-defending-cop-patient

[Dale Neiburg]

1. Rigby is in Idaho,not Utah n/t

[Mr.Bill]

13. Without body cameras,

that nurse would have been charged with assaulting a police officer. And every cop who was there would swear to it.

[iluvtennis]

21. Absolutely. I want her to file a civil law suit against the officer. He damn well knew the law...

...and that he needed a warrant.

[Mr.Bill]

26. I hope she does, too.

And he should be criminally charged. I don't know about Utah, but in California, assaulting a health care worker is a felony. Same crime as assaulting a police officer. And he's on video making the first aggressive move and making first contact.

[tblue37]

28. And in the video he actually admitted to the other cop that there was no probable cause,

so they couldn't get a warrant, which is, or course, why he resorted to trying to bully the nurse into letting him illegally draw blood.

[iluvtennis]

34. Wow, seems like he thinks cuz he's a cop, he's above the law.

[Baitball Blogger]

2. This is what happens when the police can only think

In terms of protecting their own. Sheer hypocrisy.

[yardwork]

5. I don't think that the Salt Lake police were trying to help the victim.

I think they were told by Utah Highway Patrol to test his blood in the hope that there would be some illicit substance in it, so that they could claim that he contributed to the accident. The UHP are likely going to be sued by this truck driver because of the accident. The fact that he is a reserve officer probably wasn't known to them until recently.

And I love the Rigby police chief's smackdown of the Salt Lake police.

[Honeycombe8]

10. Yes. nt

[PatSeg]

33. That was the impression I got

That he was trying to prove that the victim was driving "under the influence".

[question everything]

20. It is not just protecting their own; it is part of the militarization

of the police force.

In his 2013 book titled: “The rise of the Warrior Cop,” author Radley Balko chronicled the steady militarization of the police in the U.S. and the rise of SWAT teams. To the police, the author concluded, civilians are citizens to protect. To the military, we are a population to be subdued.

And now, Whiny Donny, who've never spent a day in the military, wants to renew the militarization of local police forces.

[delisen]

3. Plot thickens.

[yardwork]

4. This was already reported days ago and Rigby is in Idaho, not Utah.

Disgracefully poor reporting.

[Judi Lynn]

6. I wouldn't have had the nerve to post the story if I had known how much is wrong with it. Sorry. n/t

[yardwork]

14. Not your fault at all. It's an important story. Too bad it has so many errors.

I appreciate how often you post interesting news stories.

[NBachers]

17. Thanks for posting this story Judy- reading your post is how I found out about this side of it.

[d_r]

7. Yes this was in the original story

that he was a reserve police officer in Idaho. This "report" is just based off of a post on facebook. Dear Lord.

[TexasProgresive]

8. Is there any reason a truck driver from Idaho can't be in Utah?

[yardwork]

15. The article identifies the trucker's police department as being in Utah. It isn't.

The first sentence of the article is inaccurate, and inaccurate in a way that creates a lot of confusion.

Obviously the accident happened in Utah.

[Honeycombe8]

9. The hell you say! Waddya know. She did the right thing.

All she did was inform them, and show them the policy in writing, I think, that she isn't allowed by hospital policy to draw the blood from an unconscious person w/o his consent, a warrant, or unless he's been arrested. That officer immediately grabbed her roughly and pushed her out the door and swung her around and cuffed her when he pushed her up against something, while other officers stood there seemingly in shock. One other officer touched the arresting officer's arm to have him stop, but it did no good. She screamed...it was so sudden and rough that it took her by surprise...especially since she was just doing the job she does all day long: informing people of what she's doing or not, what she is allowed to do or not.

I imagine she's going to sue.

[SergeStorms]

12. I hope to hell she does.

The detective, and his superior who ordered him to arrest her, should BOTH be fired! People at that supposed level of proficiency should know, or at least CARE, about the laws regarding drawing blood from patients. The way they treated that innocent nurse was disgraceful, even if she HAD been guilty, which she wasn't.

I support Police Organizations all over the state where I live, both monetarily and volunteering my time. If they start acting like these fascist bastards that will end in a hurry.

[DetlefK]

11. Cover-up?

Why would a cop go out of his way to get a blood-sample of an unconscious patient... who also happens to be a cop?

Could it be that the asshole-cop assumed that the patient-cop had something "uncouth" in his blood?

[yardwork]

16. Hoping for that, more like. See my post upthread.

[SeattleVet]

18. More likely they wanted to try to prove that he had nothing in his system...

that may have contributed, and was therefore not in any way responsible for the accident.

If there *was* anything, even if you are the victim (like he was) they could claim that his impairment was contributory to the severity of the crash (i.e., if he wasn't impaired he might have been able to react quicker and get on the brakes, or start steering away from it).

They were trying their best to make sure that one of their own was NOT going to be found liable in any way.

The Idaho department stepped right up and praised the nurse for protecting the rights of her patient.

[Demit]

22. It was more than a "car accident." It was a high speed police chase.

The Utah police department made a foolhardy choice to engage in a high speed chase that caused this truck driver's injuries. From what I read, they could've picked the suspect up at any time, without the drama. They screwed up all around. They were *hoping* to find drugs in the victim's system.

[yardwork]

24. I agree.

[yardwork]

23. I doubt that the Salt Lake City police and Utah State Patrol knew he was a reserve officer in Idaho.

The first sentence of this story contains a serious inaccuracy, which is creating a lot of confusion.

[lapfog_1]

19. most likely the cop didn't yet know

that the victim was also a reserve officer (off-duty driving trucks?)

He just wanted the nurse to violate policy by drawing the blood of an unconscious victim without the victim's consent and without a warrant. He got pissed when the nurse wouldn't cooperate because of the stated (and legal) policy.

She was actually on her cell phone to someone (hospital administrator?) and another person on staff was attempting to defuse the situation by telling the officer that someone from the hospital administration was "on their way".

Cops are bullies with badges... almost universally. They do NOT like it when people stand up to them.

[Loge23]

25. Why hasn't Jeff Payne been fired yet?

Fired and arrested for assault on a Nurse.
The #IPOTUS will probably either pardon him or give him a job in the Injustice Dept.

[tblue37]

29. Powerful police unions make it hard to fire a cop no matter what he does. nt

[DK504]

27. Yet another session of: Wait what????

She got hauled off to jail for the legal action she took and they think they can get away with a 'sorry'.

How the hell did these brain trusts not KNOW he was one of theirs? These guys must be scraping the bottom of the barrel.

[tblue37]

30. Not jail. She was cuffed in the cop car for 20 minutes, then released, with no charges filed.

It was still wrong.

[tblue37]

31. NOT "one of theirs," but a reserve officer from another state ( Idaho). nt

[samnsara]

32. sue sue sue sue sue sue sue sue!

[Historic NY]

35. This police dept and the officer involved need to feel the pain of a lawsuit....

there is no way this officer even knows the constitutional limits of his job, he is a threat to the community at large. I am a 28 yr police veteran, unacceptable behavior.

[JohnnyRingo]

36. Why did they want his blood?

I haven't heard any official reason. Maybe it was accident investigation, but I'm not sure that's worth being an asshole over. Arresting cop seemed desperate.

[Whiskeytide]

37. The patient was burned...

... in a collision that happened during a high speed police chase. The fugitive was killed in the crash. They were afraid the patient might sue the department on the grounds that they shouldn't have been chasing the fugitive in traffic.

The logical conclusion, therefore, is that the cops were looking for "dirt" (drug impairment) on the patient to use against him.

[JohnnyRingo]

38. Thanx

It makes sense now. I see why they didn't have a probable cause to arrest him. It was just a fishing expedition.

I haven't been following the story

[Joe Chi Minh]

39. The pitiful hand-wringing of the Mayor, and the Police Chief, in particular,

is no substitute for educating the police on the beat that they do not have a free-hand to assault any member of the public in their place of work or anywhere else, over a bureaucratic matter. And 'protecting the rights of others' from police officers ought never to demand heroism. It simply should not happen - certainly in such an ugly and totally unwarranted manner as occurred here.

Incidentally, the demarcation between their authority and the authority of the nurse they were challenging, should have been transparently clear. Why was it not ? Mental deficiency ? Or instability from battle PTSD.

That woman who was supposed to be in charge of Obama's security detail set a bad precedent, when she was allowed to repeat her bizarre mantra : 'It's unacceptable'. Someone on the panel of the enquiry should have said to her at an early juncture : 'I don't think you understand Ms X. It falls to us, the members of this panel of enquiry, to pass judgment on this matter and your seemingly extravagant dereliction. The reason why this enquiry is being held is because it seems such a simple 'open and shut' case, that the reasons for its occurrence are a very profound mystery to us ; what we require from you is not surrogate judgment by you on our behalf, even if your intention is entirely philanthropic, and you wish to educate us as to what conclusions we should draw. No. What we want from you is factual information as to how this massive dereliction of your duty came about. If at the end of this enquiry, we should feel the need or even just the advisability of seekng your advice as to what our findings should be, we WILL let you know. But don't call us, will you...?'

The Mayor and Police Chief were nowhere near as presumptuous in this case, and even seemed to be apologising, but the principle involved is not all together dissimilar. It should never have happened in a month of Sundays, and in such a context, a mere apology is lame and utterly inadequate. Somebody needs to go through your police academies like a dose of salts, to make good and sure that the meaning and implications of the term, 'public service' are taught in no uncertan terms.