A nurse says she was assaulted and illegally arrested by a Salt Lake City police detective for following a hospital policy that does not allow blood draws from unconscious patients.

Footage from University Hospital and officer body cameras shows Detective Jeff Payne and nurse Alex Wubbels in a standoff over whether the policeman should be allowed to get a blood sample from a patient who had been injured in a July 26 collision in northern Utah that left another driver dead.

Wubbels says blood cannot be taken from an unconscious patient unless the patient is under arrest, unless there is a warrant allowing the draw or unless the patient consents. The detective acknowledges in the footage that none of those requirements is in place, but he insists that he has the authority to obtain the draw, according to the footage.

At one point, Payne threatens to take Wubbels to jail if he doesn’t get the sample, and he accuses her of interfering with a criminal case.

“I either go away with blood in vials or body in tow,” Payne says.

After Wubbels consults with several hospital officials and repeats the policy, Payne tells her she is under arrest and grabs her, pulling her arms behind her back and handcuffing her. The footage shows the detective dragging Wubbels out of the hospital and putting her inside a patrol car as she screams, “Help! Help! Somebody help me! Stop! Stop! I did nothing wrong!”

A University of Utah police officer and other officers, who provide security for the hospital, were present at time of the arrest and did not intervene.

As he stands in the hospital parking lot after the arrest, Payne says to another officer that he wonders how this event will affect an off-duty job transporting patients for an ambulance company.

“I’ll bring them all the transients and take good patients elsewhere,” Payne says.

Parts of the footage were shown Thursday at a news conference at the office of Karra Porter, a Salt Lake City attorney representing Wubbels.

Salt Lake police Sgt. Brandon Shearer said the department started an internal investigation, which is ongoing, in response to the incident.

Payne was suspended from the department’s blood-draw program — where officers are trained as phlebotomists so they can get blood samples — but he remains on duty with the Police Department, Shearer said. The department also has held training for the officers in the program as a result of the incident, he said.

In a written report, Payne said he was responding to a request from Logan police to get the blood sample, to determine whether the patient had illicit substances in his system at the time of the crash. Payne explained the “exigent circumstances and implied consent law” to Wubbels, but, according to his report, she said “her policies won’t allow me to obtain the blood sample without a warrant.”

Payne — who says he wanted the blood sample to protect the patient, not punish him — said he was advised by Lt. James Tracy, the watch commander on duty that night, to arrest Wubbels for interfering with a police investigation if she refused to let him get the sample, according to his report.

Tracy said in his report that he spoke on the phone with Wubbels and told her he believed that they had implied consent to get the sample, but she cut him off and said she would not allow the draw without a warrant. He then went to the hospital and tried to tell the nurse why she was in custody, but “she appeared to not want to hear my explanation,” Tracy wrote.

No claim or lawsuit has been filed, Porter said, but she has had discussions with Salt Lake City police and she believes the department will educate its officers.

Wubbels said she has heard anecdotally of other health care workers being bullied and harassed by police, and that these videos prove that there is a problem.

“I can’t sit on this video and not attempt to speak out both to re-educate and inform,” she said. Police agencies “need to be having conversations about what is appropriate intervention.”

Wubbels, who was not charged, said she has watched the footage four or five times and said, “It hurts to relive it.”

She never said “no” when Payne asked to take a blood sample; she merely explained the blood draw policy to him, according to Wubbels, who also said she was trying to keep her patient safe and do things the right way.

Porter and Wubbels declined to release information about the patient, but Payne’s report identifies him as 43-year-old William Gray, a reserve officer in the Rigby, Idaho, Police Department, who suffered burns during a July 26 crash in Cache County.

Gray is a truck driver when he is not serving as a reserve police officer, according to the Idaho State Journal.

At about 2 p.m. on July 26, Gray was driving a semi north on State Road 89/91 near Sardine Canyon when a man fleeing from the Utah Highway Patrol crashed a pickup truck into him head-on, according to Logan police, who investigated the collision.

The crash caused an explosion and fire, Logan police have said. Gray was on fire when he exited the semi. The driver of the pickup truck, Marcos Torres, 26, died at the scene.





Police have said Torres was fleeing from the UHP after other drivers reported him driving recklessly.



| Courtesy Utah Highway Patrol A pick up truck that that was fleeing from a Highway Patrol trooper on SR 89-91 crossed the median and collided head on with a semi truck. The driver of the pick up truck was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the semi truck suffered serious injuries. | Courtesy Utah Highway Patrol A pick up truck that that was fleeing from a Highway Patrol trooper on SR 89-91 crossed the median and collided head on with a semi truck. The driver of the pick up truck was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the semi truck suffered serious injuries.

On Thursday, Gray was in serious condition at University Hospital, officials there said.

</s>Nurse Alex Wubbels is going viral on Friday, September 1, because of a video that shows Nurse Wubbels being arrested for not allowing Salt Lake City Police Detective Jeff Payne to take blood from a patient who was unconscious. The below video from the YouTube account named “Police Activity” and titled “Nurse Gets Arrested For Not Allowing Blood Draw Without a Warrant” has swelled to nearly 40,000 views. The footage shows the full interaction of Nurse Wubbels’ arrest. The video named “Arrest of University Hospital nurse Alex Wobbles” via The Salt Lake Tribune YouTube account has gained 316,000 views.

Nurse Wubbels was working as the charge nurse at the University of Utah Hospital when Police Detective Jeff Payne waited for blood to be drawn from William Gray, a man who was unconscious, and whose information is clearly shown in the below video. Born on July 29, 1975, the 42-year-old William could not give his consent to have his blood drawn, which was one of the stipulations needed for Nurse Wubbels to allow police to draw blood from the truck driver who was a patient at the University of Utah Hospital after being in a car accident on July 26.

Nurse Wubbels printed out a form and showed Payne that if the patient couldn’t give consent, or if he hadn’t been arrested, and if police didn’t have a warrant, she wasn’t allowed to let police draw blood. With Nurse Alex’s supervisor on the phone, Payne was warned that he was harassing a nurse. That’s when Payne lost it, grabbed Nurse Alex, and dragged her out of the hospital. Nurse Wubbels screamed and told Payne he was assaulting her and asked Payne why he was so angry.

According to the New York Daily News, Nurse Wubbels’ supervisor told Payne he was “making a huge mistake,” but apparently, that didn’t sit well with the police. After Nurse Wubbels was forced into a police car, another police officer spoke with Nurse Alex, claiming that “her” policy was interfering with a police investigation.

Nurse Wubbels explained that is was not her policy and that she was attempting to follow the letter of the law. Nurse Alex later held a press conference, and Wubbels was joined by her lawyer, Karra Porter, as she called for the police to be better trained. Meanwhile, Nurse Wubbels is being called a hero for the way that she protected her patient based on the law, and the firing of the officers involved has become a rallying cry.

Nurse Wubbels explained that it is her job to keep her patients safe. The fact that a person’s blood is their personal property is something that was noted by Nurse Alex. However, the police officer that gave his name as “J. Payne” in the video and talked about “implied consent law,” which is believed to have not been the law in more than 10 years, claims he was instructed to arrest Nurse Wubbels if she didn’t let him illegally take the blood of the patient.</s>SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The Latest on a nurse in Utah who was handcuffed by police over a blood draw (all times local): 5:30 p.m.

Salt Lake City police say an officer seen on video dragging a screaming nurse from a hospital and handcuffing her will be put on paid administrative leave after prosecutors called for a criminal investigation.

Police Chief Mike Brown said in a statement Friday that his department will comply with the investigation into Detective Jeff Payne. He arrested nurse Alex Wubbels after she refused to allow blood to be drawn from an unconscious victim, in line with hospital policy.

Salt Lake County's Unified Police Department will run the criminal probe into Payne's actions on July 26, which got widespread attention after Wubbels and her lawyers released the dramatic video Thursday.

Brown and the mayor of Salt Lake City have apologized for the incident and changed their policies to mirror hospital protocols.

An Idaho police department is thanking a Utah nurse for stopping a Salt Lake City officer from obtaining a blood sample from one of their reserve officers who was unconscious in a hospital.

Police in the eastern Idaho town of Rigby said Friday that William Gray was severely injured in a Utah crash in July when the semi-truck he was driving for work was hit by another car.

Rigby police said in a statement they didn't know until Thursday that the nurse was arrested after refusing to allow blood to be drawn from Gray.

The department thanked the nurse, Alex Wubbels, and hospital "for standing firm" and protecting the Gray's rights.

It says he is still hospitalized.

A Utah prosecutor says he's asked for a criminal investigation into a police officer who dragged a nurse from a hospital and arrested her for refusing to allow blood to be drawn from an unconscious patient.

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said Friday that he was concerned when he saw police body-camera footage of the officer arresting nurse Alex Wubbels in July.

Gill says he called Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown to request the investigation and that the chief agreed.

Gill says Brown will choose an outside police agency to investigate. He declined to say what charges the officer could face.

Police did not immediately return telephone messages seeking comment or details about the criminal investigation.

A Utah nurse says she was scared to death and trying to find anything to hold on to when a police officer dragged her from a hospital and handcuffed her for refusing to allow blood to be drawn from an unconscious patient.

Alex Wubbels said in an interview Friday that the officer lost his temper on July 26 and "attacked me and assaulted me and dragged me out of my emergency department."

She says she was screaming and "just trying to hold on to anything that was keeping me safe because no one else was keeping me safe."

Wubbels says that before her arrest, the officer was agitated and angry as she explained that hospital policy prevented her from drawing the patient's blood without a warrant, the patient being under arrest or with their consent.

A Utah hospital says it's proud of the way their nurse handled a confrontation with a police officer, who has been slammed by fellow nurses as violent.

The University of Utah Health hospital said in a statement Friday that Alex Wubbels followed procedures and protocols in the July 26 incident.

Wubbels was threatened with arrest by Salt Lake City police Detective Jeff Payne when she refused to allow blood to be drawn from an unconscious burn center patient.

National Nurses United called it a disgraceful and outrageous act of violence for the officer to drag the screaming nurse out of the hospital in handcuffs.

The union also cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2016, which affirms that a blood sample cannot be taken without patient consent or a warrant.

A Utah nurse who was handcuffed and dragged from her job after she refused to allow a blood draw on an unconscious patient says she's accepting apologies from the Salt Lake City mayor and police chief.

Alex Wubbels said in a statement Friday that felt the personal apologies were sincere.

She also says she looks forward to working with them to promote civil dialogue and education.

She says they're taking the matter seriously and she believes positive change will come out of it.

Wubbels says the outpouring of support she's received since releasing dramatic video of the exchange was beyond what she could have imagined.

The mayor of Salt Lake City says the arrest of a nurse who told a police officer she couldn't draw blood from an unconscious patient is completely unacceptable.

Mayor Jackie Biskupski says it's a troubling setback to efforts to train officers to de-escalate situations rather than use force.

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert also weighed in Friday, a day after dramatic video surfaced of the exchange with nurse Alex Wubbels. He says in a tweet that the footage is disturbing and he trusts police will rectify the situation.

Police Chief Mike Brown says he's alarmed and sad the incident caused a rift between police and nurses.

He says the department has taken steps to ensure it won't happen again. The officer has been removed from a drawing blood but remains employed during an internal investigation.

Salt Lake City police have apologized after an officer handcuffed a hospital nurse for refusing a blood draw from an unconscious patient.

Police spokeswoman Christina Judd said the agency initiated an internal investigation within hours of the July 26 encounter between Detective Jeff Payne and University Hospital burn unit nurse Alex Wubbels that was caught on the officer's body camera.

Payne has been suspended from blood-draw duties but remains in his role as a detective in the investigations unit.

Judd says the assistant chief has apologized to the hospital and that the department is alarmed by what they saw in the video .

Judd said the department is working to investigate what went wrong and is seeking to repair the "unfortunate rift" it has caused.

A Utah police officer's body camera video shows a hospital nurse being handcuffed after refusing to draw blood on an unconscious patient.

The video taken at University Hospital in Salt Lake City shows nurse Alex Wubbels calmly explaining to Salt Lake detective Jeff Payne that she couldn't draw blood on a patient who had been injured in a car accident. She told the officer a patient was required to give consent for a blood sample or be under arrest.

Otherwise, she said police needed a warrant.

The dispute ended with Payne telling the nurse she was under arrest and physically moving her out of the hospital while she screamed.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports (http://bit.ly/2vvBdMR ) Wubbels was not charged. Police have started an internal investigation, but Payne remains on duty.</s>Share On more Share On more

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A Utah nurse released police bodycam footage from a July incident where an officer dragged her outside a hospital, put hand-cuffs on her, and put her into a patrol car for refusing to give a patient's blood to police.

The July 26 footage, released Thursday, shows Alex Wubbels, a nurse at University Hospital in Salt Lake City, in a standoff with Detective Jeff Payne over whether the officer could draw blood from a patient who was unconscious following a car crash.



Wubbels tells Payne in the video that hospital policy dictates that blood cannot be drawn from an unconscious patients unless they are under arrest or there is a warrant signed by a judge allowing the blood to be taken.

Payne insisted that Wubbels let him take the blood, threatening to arrest the nurse if she did not comply.

"I either go away with blood in vials or body in tow," Payne said.

The video footage shows Wubbels, who has worked at University Hospital since 2009, calling several hospital officials who repeated the policy on taking blood from an unconscious patient.</s>SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Latest on a nurse in Utah who was handcuffed by police over a blood draw (all times local):

Salt Lake City police have apologized after an officer handcuffed a hospital nurse for refusing a blood draw from an unconscious patient.

Police spokeswoman Christina Judd said the agency initiated an internal investigation within hours of the July 26 encounter between Detective Jeff Payne and University Hospital burn unit nurse Alex Wubbels that was caught on the officer’s body camera.

Payne has been suspended from blood-draw duties but remains in his role as a detective in the investigations unit.

Judd says the assistant chief has apologized to the hospital and that the department is alarmed by what they saw in the video.

Judd said the department is working to investigate what went wrong and is seeking to repair the “unfortunate rift” it has caused.

A Utah police officer’s body camera video shows a hospital nurse being handcuffed after refusing to draw blood on an unconscious patient.

The video taken at University Hospital in Salt Lake City shows nurse Alex Wubbels calmly explaining to Salt Lake detective Jeff Payne that she couldn’t draw blood on a patient who had been injured in a car accident. She told the officer a patient was required to give consent for a blood sample or be under arrest. Otherwise, she said police needed a warrant.

The dispute ended with Payne telling the nurse she was under arrest and physically moving her out of the hospital while she screamed.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports Wubbels was not charged. Police have started an internal investigation, but Payne remains on duty.
• Download the WISH-TV app for your iPhone/iPad in the App Store
• Download the WISH-TV app in the Google Play store</s>A scandal broke out after released bodycam footage showed Detective Jeff Payne brutally handcuffing nurse Alex Wubbles and dragging her to the patrol car after she several times refused to draw blood from a dazed car crash victim in line with protocols.

The Salt Lake City police said the policeman would be placed on full administrative leave after city Mayor Jackie Biskupski condemned the incident as being completely unacceptable to the values of her administration and apologized to Wubbles.</s>A nurse from the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City has released police body cam and hospital surveillance videos to alert the public of what she said was an unlawful arrest and assault by a Salt Lake City Police officer.

Alex Wubbels was brutally arrested after she told the law enforcement officers that she couldn't draw blood from an unconscious person.

Police Detective Jeff Payne demanded a blood sample from a truck driver who was hospitalized after a car crash. Wubbles told him the hospital and the police department already had a policy in place that blood could not be taken without consent from the patient unless there is a warrant from a judge or the patient was a suspected criminal.

“This is something that you guys agreed to with this hospital,” the nurse told Payne. “I'm just trying to do what I'm supposed to do. That's all.”

When she refused, Payne resorted to bullying.

He grabbed her arms, marched her out of the hospital and handcuffed her.

“No, we're done, you're under arrest,” he said, as he pull the nurse’s arm behind her back.

“Stop! You’re assaulting me,” screamed Wubbels, before being placed in a patrol car for about 20 minutes. She was later released without any charges filed against her.

The officer, on the other hand, threatened Wubbels with jail.

“I either go away with blood in vials or body in tow,” he said in the footage.

A Department of Public Safety officer was reportedly present when the nurse was being harassed, but he did nothing.

On Thursday, Wubbels held a press conference with her attorney Karra Porter, calling for the police to be better trained.

“I’m a health care worker. The only job I have is to keep my patients safe,” she said.

“A blood draw, it just gets thrown around there like it’s some simple thing. But blood is your blood. That’s your property. And when a patient comes in in a critical state, that blood is extremely important and I don’t take it lightly,” she added.

Payne has since been temporarily suspended from the Salt Lake City Police Department’s blood-draw program.

Sgt. Brandon Shearer said that an internal investigation was ongoing.</s>SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah police officer’s body camera video shows a hospital nurse being handcuffed after refusing to draw blood on an unconscious patient.

The video taken at University Hospital in Salt Lake City shows nurse Alex Wubbels calmly explaining to Salt Lake detective Jeff Payne that she couldn’t draw blood on a patient who had been injured in a car accident.

She told the officer a patient was required to give consent for a blood sample or be under arrest. Otherwise, she said police needed a warrant.

The dispute ended with Payne telling the nurse she was under arrest and physically moving her out of the hospital while she screamed.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports Wubbels was not charged. Police have started an internal investigation, but Payne remains on duty.</s>The Utah nurse shown on video being pushed and then handcuffed by a police officer is Aspen native and former Olympic skier Alex (Shaffer) Wubbels.

The Salt Lake City police officer’s body camera video shows Wubbels being handcuffed after refusing to draw blood on an unconscious patient after a car crash in July.

The video taken July 26 at University Hospital in Salt Lake City shows nurse Alex Wubbels calmly explaining to Salt Lake detective Jeff Payne that she couldn’t draw blood on a patient who had been injured in a car accident. She told the officer a patient was required to give consent for a blood sample or be under arrest. Otherwise, she said police needed a warrant.

The dispute ended with Payne telling the nurse she was under arrest and physically moving her out of the hospital while she screamed: "Help! Somebody help me! Stop! Stop! I did nothing wrong!"

Wubbel was born in Aspen in 1976 and skied in the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City and the 1998 Games in Nagano. She held a news conference Thursday with her attorney and showed the footage. According to the Deseret News, Wubbels remains upset and wants to bring light to the situation and better police training.

“I just feel betrayed, I feel angry. I feel a lot of things. And I am still confused. I'm a health care worker. The only job I have is to keep my patients safe,” she said at the news conference. “A blood draw, it just gets thrown around there like it's some simple thing. But blood is your blood. That's your property. And when a patient comes in in a critical state, that blood is extremely important and I don't take it lightly," she said.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports Wubbels was not charged. Police have started an internal investigation, but Payne remains on duty.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.</s>The Utah nurse whose arrest for refusing to draw blood from an unconscious patient drew nationwide criticism said Friday what hurt most wasn't being manhandled by a detective — it was that none of the other officers watching the struggle tried to intervene.

"I was being bullied and nobody was willing to speak up for me," Alex Wubbels told NBC News. "That is one of the main points of this whole issue."

Wubbels, a University of Utah Hospital nurse and a former Olympic athlete, said Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski "did reach out to me with a personal apology. I accepted that apology."

Biskupski also tweeted an apology on her behalf and that of the police chief.

But neither Detective Jeff Payne, the officer who arrested her, nor his supervisor have apologized for what Wubbels called the "disgrace they put upon themselves."

She was not charged with a crime. Asked whether she believes Payne should be disciplined, the nurse said "that's not for me to make that choice."

"I do think a lot of police act appropriately and are out there to help us," she said.

The city announced Friday that the Unified Police Department is conducting an independent investigation into whether any criminal acts occurred. Payne has been placed on paid administrative leave, officials said. The city's mayor called the incident "unacceptable."

"This is an ever evolving situation, and we will do what is necessary to fully investigate the issue, uphold the integrity of the Salt Lake City Police Department, and strengthen the trust with our community," Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown said in a statement.

Payne has not responded to requests for comment.

A police spokesperson said they were alarmed by what happened and that the department is working closely with the hospital to ensure this never happens again.

The 19 minutes of police bodycam footage made public showed Payne insisting that Wubbels draw the blood. He appears to grow increasingly impatient as the nurse cites hospital protocol as her reason for refusing his order.

While other officers watched, Wubbels explained to Payne that, if he wanted the blood, he needed either an electronic warrant, patient consent, or declare an intent to arrest the patient.

But Payne, the nurse said, wasn't having it.

"He was on a mission," Wubbels said of Payne. "I just knew that I was in the right."

In the videos, which may have been edited, Wubbels held her ground about drawing blood. Payne then suddenly snapped.

"No, we're done," he said. "You're under arrest, we're going!"

He was then seen yanking her arms behind her and cuffing her wrists before hauling her to the back of the patrol car.

"Please sir, you're hurting me," Wubbels said.

Wubbels, from inside the car, screamed for help and that "I did nothing wrong!" She was later let go.

On Thursday, an emotional Wubbels said law enforcement needs better training about when they can draw blood from patients for investigations. "At the very least, there needs to be some significant discussion about what their duties are to society," she said.

Wubbels, a nurse at the hospital since 2009 who competed as an Alpine skier at the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics, said feels betrayed and angry.

"And I am still confused," said Wubbels as she wiped away tears. "I'm a health care worker. The only job I have is to keep my patients safe."

What happened, she said, "was not peaceful. This was not even civil."

The incident was condemned as "outrageous" by National Nurses United, the country's largest nursing union.

"As the videos and news accounts make clear, there is no excuse for this assault, or her arrest, which sends a chilling message about the safety of nurses and the rights of patients," said Jean Ross, the group's co-president.

The patient at the center of the drama was a truck driver who was injured when his vehicle collided with that of another driver who was fleeing police, reported NBC affiliate KSL-TV.

The truck driver was badly burned and comatose and police were seeking his blood to determine whether he had illicit substances in his system at the time of the crash, according to a written report obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune.

His name has not been released.
Footage is released showing police officer Jeff Payne arresting the nurse Alex Wubbels after she refuses his request to draw blood from one of her patients.