Shocking video has emerged, showing a nurse being put into handcuffs simply for doing her job.
University of Utah nurse Alex Wubbels released the video to the public on Thrusday, in hopes of preventing a similar incident from happening again.
Wubbels, a former Olympic skier, was working as the charge nurse in the hospital’s burn unit the night of July 26 when veteran Salt Lake City Police Det. Jeff Payne came in to get vials of blood from a patient.
The patient, a male truck driver, had been brought in unconscious earlier after crashing head on with another driver who swerved into oncoming traffic while fleeing from police.
Alex Wubbels (pictured) released police lapel video showing a Salt Lake City cop putting her in handcuffs on July 26
Wubbels was put in handcuffs by veteran Det. Jeff Payne for refusing to take blood from an unconscious patient
In the video, Wubbels calmly explains the hospital’s procedure for such cases, but Payne doesn’t take no for an answer
But because the truck driver was not a suspect in the crash, and likely wouldn’t face charges, Payne didn’t have probable cause or a warrant to take the blood from the patient, who was in a coma.
The video shows Wubbels calmly explaining the hospital’s policy to Payne, while he gets increasingly impatient and threatening towards her.
In the nearly 20-minute clip, Wubbels calls several of her supervisors to confirm the policy, but Payne won’t take no for an answer.
Eventually, Payne snaps and tells Wubbels that he’s arresting her.
‘She’s going to jail,’ Payne says.
‘Why?’ a hospital staff member asks.
‘Interfering with a criminal investigation,’ Payne replies.
Payne takes the nurse outside and pushed her up against a wall to put handcuffs on her
Wubbels starts crying out, saying she did nothing wrong and was just following orders
‘This is crazy. This is crazy. Why is he so angry?’ Wubbels says in the video
Wubbels is eventually placed in a squad car. She sits there for about 20 minutes before being released
Wubbels was never charged with a crime. Payne (standing right) is still on active duty
Wubbels then lets out a cry as Payne charges after her and then drags her outside where he pushed her against a wall and starts putting her in handcuffs.
‘Stop! I’ve done nothing wrong,’ Wubbels cries. ‘This is unnecessary.’
‘This is crazy. This is crazy. Why is he so angry?’ she continues.
Payne has a heated discussion with two hospital staff members before pulling Wubbels over to his car and putting her in the back seat.
Wubbels was held there for about 20 minutes before Payne let her go. She was never officially charged with a crime.
Wubbels says she has no plans to sue the police department, but she wanted to release the video so this situation never happens again.
Wubbels spoke out about the issue on the Today show on Friday. She says she hopes releasing the video will prevent a similar incident from happening agian
‘I think right now, I believe in the goodness of society. I want to see people do the right thing first and I want to see this be a civil discourse. And 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,’ she told the Deseret News.
‘The only job I have as a nurse is to keep my patients safe. A blood draw – it gets thrown around there like it’s some simple thing – but blood is your blood, it’s your property,’ Wubbels told the Today show.
Salt Lake Police Sgt. Brandon Shearer said that Chief Mike Brown has seen the ‘very alarming’.
Shearer admitted that the department’s blood-draw policy hadn’t been undated, but that they are now working to educate all officers on the current policy.
Payne is still on active duty but he was suspended from the blood draw program and an internal investigation is ongoing.
Perhaps even more concerning is a comment Payne is heard saying on the video to another officer.
Talking about his other job as an ambulance driver, Payne says :’I’ll bring ’em all the transients and take the good patients elsewhere.’
Wubbels was civil when asked what she would like to see happen to the officer.
‘I think he needs some serious training,’ she said.