Nurse That Was Wrongfully Arrested Reaches Settlement

Back in July, Alex Wubbels was arrested at the Salt Lake City hospital where she worked after she refused to take blood from an unconscious patient for police.

However, what the officer failed to realize was that Wubbels was following the correct protocol. The only time she was authorized to draw blood from an unconscious patient was if that person were under arrest, which they were not. The officer proceeded to handcuff the nurse, as she cried out that she had done nothing wrong.

The arresting officer, Detective Jeff Payne, was put on administrative leave back in September after Wubbels and her attorney released the body cam footage. Lieutenant James Tracy, the one who made the arrest order, was just recently demoted to the rank of officer after making the “completely unreasonable” arrest demand. Tracy is appealing though, as he believes the demotion is an act of “excessive discipline.”

As for Wubbels, she went forward with a lawsuit against Salt Lake City and the university that ran the hospital she worked for. The three parties involved settled for $500,000 to be paid to the nurse, being divided between the city and the university. Wubbels plans on using the money to create a legal fund to help those obtain bodycam footage that is crucial to their own situations, along with donating some to a nurse’s union that works to stop the verbal and physical abuse of nurses on the job.

Photo credit: Shutterstock

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