Posted on 09/01/2017 7:34:22 AM PDT by BobNative
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at sltrib.com ...
If he cannot state the source for his ‘authority’ he’s full of crap...................
One yuuuuge lawsuit, comin’ up!
That officer acted like a thug. No reason to escalate the situation like that.
If you watch the whole 18 minutes....she’s telling him the precise way that she can do this (legally). If she went his way...she’d draw the blood illegally, and give prosecution case an ample chance to be thrown out by the judge. The cop, and his boss...are too stupid to grasp that.
It just adds more fuel to the fire that we have a large number of cops who are unable to perform their job in a proficient manner. Even when they let this guy go....he’ll be a TSA agent within a week or two.
Yeah, if you read the entire article, the officer sounds like he needs to be relieved of his badge, before he really does some damage.
The story, AS PRESENTED, shows a arrogant and out-of-control cop.
The police are their own worst enemies. When they get out of control and flout the law, they lend credence to evil liars like the Black Liars Movement and the pAntifags.
Should “hospital policy” trump the needs of law enforcement? If the cop is off-base and if he is acquiring a blood sample inappropriately, then it cannot be used in a court of law. It seems to me that the timing was vital and there was always time later to “throw away” the result if the evidence ended up being inadmissible.
Unless the blood draw endangered the patient, I would think the cop might have been making a valid request.
From the article:
“
Porter, however, said implied consent has not been the law in Utah since 2007, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2016 that the Constitution permits warrantless breath tests in drunken-driving arrests, but not warrantless blood tests. She stressed that the patient was always considered the victim in the case and never was suspected of wrongdoing.”
Officer, his Lt. and PD are in Big Do-Do!..................
That’s one of the worst videos I’ve ever seen. That cop should go to prison.
Just to note, the unconscious person the officer was trying to obtain a sample from was a victim in a crash. He was hit head-on by a perp the police were chasing. Explains why there was neither a warrant, nor an arrest for the unconscious victim.
Get a lawyer and let him/her do what is necessary. Most lawyers get paid from your settlement money.
Article was written to put the cop in the worst light possible. Full context shows that he was, indeed, in the wrong, IMO.
Nope. The courts will side with the officer because he was “acting in good faith”. Yep.
Good thing he didn’t shoot her.
There's no case against the unconscious patient. He is a victim in this. The police in Utah were chasing a perp and the perp hit the now-unconscious patient head-on in a crash during the chase.
There's absolutely no reason to draw blood from this person, no reason for him to be under arrest, and no reason for a warrant to be issued for a blood draw.
Yes. I think I was too quick. I figured the journalist was just trying to make the cop look bad, but it appears that the Nurse had it right and the cop was being thuggish. I wish I could remove my comment above.
Don't care - the 4th amendment trumps the 'needs' of law enforcement.
“Should hospital policy trump the needs of law enforcement?”
Absolutely, they are predicated on laws designed to protect their patients. Once again, we see the arrogance displayed by this LEO that drives the absolute need for body cameras on all cops. I suspect that it is more than hospital policy, and more likely state law regarding the rights of the accused. The fact that this cop didn’t want to follow the law is ample evidence that he needs to be dismissed, and that he never be allowed to be a cop again, ever. And he should be prosecuted for assaulting the nurse.
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