Salt Lake Tribune – by Pamela Manson
University Hospital nurse Alex Wubbels has agreed to a $500,000 payment to settle a dispute over her arrest by a Salt Lake City police officer after she barred him from drawing blood from an unconscious patient, her attorney said Tuesday.
Attorney Karra Porter said at a news conference that the agreement with Salt Lake City and the University of Utah covers all parties and takes the possibility of legal action off the table. “There will be no lawsuit,” she said.
The arrest drew widespread condemnation after Porter released police body camera and hospital security footage of the encounter on Aug. 31.
Wubbels will use a portion of the money to help people get body camera footage, at no cost, of incidents involving themselves, she said at the news conference. In addition, Porter’s law firm, Christensen & Jensen, will provide for free any legal services necessary to obtain the video.
“We all deserve to know the truth and the truth comes when you see the actual raw footage and that’s what happened in my case,” Wubbels said. “No matter how truthful I was in telling my story, it was nothing compared to what people saw and the visceral reaction people experienced when watching the footage of the experience that I went through.”
Wubbels said she also will make a donation to the Utah Nurses Association and will help spearhead the #EndNurseAbuse campaign by the American Nurses Association.
Porter said she hopes the discussion about the need for police body cameras continues and noted that the footage also protects law enforcement officers.
The July 26 encounter leading to Wubbels’ arrest began when she refused to allow Salt Lake City Detective Jeff Payne to draw blood from an unconscious patient who had been involved in a fiery crash in Cache County earlier in the day.
Wubbels pointed out that the crash victim was not under arrest, that Payne did not have a warrant to obtain the blood and that he could not obtain consent because the man was unconscious.
Payne insisted he had implied consent to get the blood and eventually arrested Wubbels. He handcuffed her and placed her in a police car outside the hospital, then released her after about 20 minutes. Charges were never filed against the nurse.
lawyers and money
…..and NOTHING happened to the enforcer pig regarding this?
She should have held out for more
good she got some compensation, better if the pig was unemployed or incarcerated.
None of that settlement came out of that pigs pocket
It all came out of our pockets
If we don’t stop this it will come down on our heads , not theirs
Nothing is going to change with these current practices of paying out these types of law suits from the US tax payers pockets
Until these Unionized Thugs start paying for their own F-ups , We the People will continue to be fleeced
And when that well runs dry
What than?