A nurse was arrested for refusing to draw blood from an unconscious trucker during an accident investigation in July.
The arrest happened at the University of Utah hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah and was captured on film by a police officer’s body cam.
On July 26th, truck driver William Gray was struck by a pickup that was trying to evade police on Highway 89/91 in Wellsville, Utah.
Police dash cam footage shows the pickup striking Gray’s tractor trailer, leading to a fiery crash that killed the fleeing pickup driver and severely injured Gray.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, later that day, Police Detective Jeff Payne entered the University of Utah hospital and demanded a blood sample from the unconscious trucker.
The interaction between nurse Alex Wubbels and Detective Payne was captured on Payne’s body cam and released publicly on Thursday, August 31st.
In the footage, Wubbels refuses to comply with the officer’s demand for blood without a warrant.
Detective Payne indicates that he does not have a warrant, but insists on receiving the trucker’s blood sample.
Wubbels then contacts hospital officials, who confirm the hospital policy against taking blood without a warrant. Wubbels also pointed out that Gray was not suspected of wrongdoing in the incident, giving the officer even less authority over the blood draw.
The officer threatened that he would “either go away with blood in vials or body in tow.”
Payne then stated that the nurse was “interfering with a criminal investigation” and put her under arrest, grabbing her roughly.
“Stop! You’re assaulting me,” Wubbels can be heard saying in the recording.
Wubbels was aggressively escorted to the officer’s patrol car, where she was left for 20 minutes before being released.
Payne claimed that he had a right to the trucker’s blood due to the “implied consent” law, a law which states that, if you are driving a vehicle, you automatically consent to chemical tests to test for alcohol or drugs. However, the “implied consent” law has not been a law in the state of Utah since 2007 and only permits warrantless breath tests, not warrantless blood tests.
Payne also claims that he was advised by Lieutenant James Tracy to arrest Wubbels if she refused to produce a blood sample from Gray.
“A blood draw, it just gets thrown around there like it’s some simple thing. But your 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,” said Wubbels.
“I’m a health care worker. The only job I have is to keep my patients safe,” she continued.
No lawsuits or other charges have been filed against either side, but Wubbels’ attorney, Karra Porter, says that she has held discussions with the Salt Lake City Police on the matter.
Gray remains at the University of Utah in a critical state.
Watch the confrontation and arrest in the footage below.
