The police officer sacked for forcefully handcuffing and dragging a nurse out of a hospital is to appeal the decision to dismiss him.
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Authorities confirmed that a Utah police officer who was caught on video roughly handcuffing a nurse because she refused to allow a blood draw has been fired.
The video of the aggressive encounter spread like wildfire online, attracting international attention. Body-camera video showed nurse Alex Wubbels trying to explain that hospital policy required a warrant or formal consent to draw blood from the patient injured in a July 26 car crash.
The officer had neither but insisted. In the clip, Wubbels has her superior on the phone as she goes through the warrant and claims that it does not match with the criteria to legally execute it at the Utah hospital.
Alex Wubbels displays video frame grabs from Salt Lake City Police Department body cams of herself being taken into custody
The discussion gets increasingly heated and the person on the phone is heard telling the officer: ‘Sir, you’re making a huge mistake right now. Like, you’re making a huge mistake because you’re threatening –‘ Payne then appears to snap and tries to grab the phone off Wubbles. He says: ‘No we’re done, we’re done — you’re under arrest. I said we’re done!’
Payne pushes Wubbels toward and exit, bends her over something outside and arrests her. She cries out ‘help me!’ and begins to sob. The two officers with Payne do not act throughout the arrest. Wubbles was then placed in a car for 20 minutes before she is uncuffed. The dispute ended with him dragging her outside as she screamed she had done nothing wrong.
Detective Jeff Payne. Payne, the Utah police officer who was caught on video roughly handcuffing a nurse because she refused to allow a blood draw.
A Salt Lake City Police spokesman said Chief Mike Brown made the decision Tuesday following an investigation into Detective Jeff Payne, who made the arrest that became a flashpoint in the ongoing national conversation about police use of force. Payne’s lawyer, Greg Skordas, has pointed to the officer’s decorated 27-year history and questioned whether his behavior warranted termination.
Skordas said he plans to appeal the decision he calls unfair. He says Payne would agree to be disciplined, but the decision to terminate him went beyond what’s fair. Payne was fired after he arrested Alex Wubbels on July 26 after she refused to allow him to draw blood from a patient unconscious after a car crash.
Nurse Alex Wubbels speaks during an interview after she was dragged in handcuffs by Utah police from a hospital in Salt Lake City
Payne insisted, and the dispute ended with him dragging her outside as she screamed she had done nothing wrong. Police later apologised and changed their policies.
source: metro