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The head nurse in a Utah hospital burn unit says she was assaulted and forcefully arrested by a Salt Lake City detective after refusing to violate hospital policy by allowing the officer to take a blood sample from an unconscious patient without a search warrant.

In bodycam footage of the incident, which took place on July 26 and was first reported by local media outlets on Thursday, University of Utah Hospital nurse Alex Wubbels is seen politely standing her ground as the situation escalates. The officer, Detective Jeff Payne, insists that he has the authority to draw blood from a patient who was badly burned in a head-on crash (the other driver, who smashed into the patient’s truck while fleeing police, was killed).


Wubbels gets her supervisor on the phone to back up her repeated assertion that she can’t allow Payne, a trained police phlebotomist, to draw blood from the trucker, who was not suspected of a crime, without a search warrant.

Her supervisor can be heard saying: “Sir, you’re making a huge mistake because you’re threatening a nurse.”

With that remark (which happens around the six-minute mark), Payne seems to lose his temper completely, grabbing ahold of the nurse, pinning her arms behind her back and pulling her out of the building as she screams “This is crazy!” and sobs. She continues to ask Payne to stop and told him “you’re assaulting me” and cry for help as Payne handcuffed her and put her in an unmarked police car.


As other hospital officials attempt to reason with Payne, he tells them that the nurse was interfering with a police investigation. He also insists that consent from the unconscious patient to draw blood was implied–even though that hasn’t been Utah state law since 2007, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.

An internal investigation is now underway. Payne has been suspended from the department’s blood-draw program, the Tribune reported, but remains on active duty.


Watch the full video below:

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