And The Hole Gets Deeper

Longer video of yesterday's story about the nurse arrested by badged thug in Salt Lake City:

So the nurse, charge nurse of the burn unit where a victim unconscious, under no suspicion of any criminal conduct, not under arrest, nor with any cause to be, therefore not covered by any imaginary "exigent circumstances" claims, then or now, told the officer, in absolute compliance with both University Hospital/SLC PD mutually agreed upon policy, and black-letter law of the Supreme Court's explicit decision in McNeely v. Missouri that all non-consensual blood draws absent consent require a search warrant, and was arrested because she told Detective Jackboots Respectmahauthoritay Payne that he was trying to break the law, something which she was prevented by policy, law, ethics, and conscience, from participating to or assenting to.

The arrest was made on direction from Payne's supervisor, Lt. Shitforbrains Tracy, and both jackboots in question working for the Salt Lake City PD.

Any blood draw on the patient would have been illegal, a battery upon the patient, and would have likely cost any medical person participating in same to lose their license to practice.
Detective Jackboots was thus either trying to compel a medical professional to commit battery upon a patient, or look the other way while he did it, neither of which are legal in any state in the union.

There were multiple SLCPD officers present, all of whom were informed multiple times and ways in the act that they were out of policy, and breaking the law.
Battery is a misdemeanor; conspiracy to do so makes this incident a felony by Det. Payne, Lt. Tracy, and any and all officers present and complicit with the action.
The arrest, being illegal (proof of which that no charges were filed) was assault and battery, false arrest, false imprisonment, kidnapping, public endangerment (that nurse had direct supervisorial duties in a critical patient care unit), violation of civil rights under color of authority, and egregious official assholishness above and beyond the call of duty.

So what you watch in the video is multiple SLCPD officers commit half a dozen state and federal felonies and misdemeanors in just the first minute, starting at about the 06:50 mark of his video.

That's before we get into civil claims against Det. Payne, every other officer present who failed to intervene, Lt. Tracy, the Salt Lake City PD, and Salt Lake City itself. who owns these ignorant badged jackasses, and all the mischief, piracy, and brigandry they practice, by the nurse, every patient in that ward the entire shift including the victim of the accident that started this monkeys-fucking-a-football incident, the hospital, and every doctor and nurse on that shift deprived of the services of that nurse for the duration of her illegal arrest and detention.

And then there's mental anguish for the nurse, plus the punitive damages, traditionally treble the actual damages.

If you have any SLC municipal bonds in your portfolio, you'd best dump them, fast.
This is going to be a whopper, and a conga line of lawyers looking to proceed with this case on behalf of the 20-80 plaintiffs will look like Disneyland's front gate on the Fourth of July.

But wait, there's more!

On one of the multiple videos now coming to light in this case, you can hear one of the officers comment that the reason they couldn't get a warrant is because they have no probable cause!!!
So they knew ALL ALONG they were asking for consent/collusion to perform a blatantly unconstitutional and illegal search and battery on an unconscious person, A VICTIM, in front of the hospital staff, God, and everybody!!!

Well played, badged jackbooted thugs of Salt Lake City.
When 5000 lawyers get you in court, they'll get every DUI/DWI arrest/conviction in the last 5 years and every citation in the next 2, thrown out as another unconstitutional illegal search, because that's SLCPD policy!

Every cop there who was in on this is now tainted going back to the statute of limitations, for every case their name is on.

Fucking brilliant, assholes.

And to boot, the Detective Clousseau in question was trained in phlebotomy techniques, so as a forensically-aware detective, it's reasonable to assume he should have known that the blood sample he was demanding was not only out of hospital policy, but expressly prohibited under the decision issued by SCOTUS in 2013, McNeely v. Missouri, over four years prior to this incident.

Some people make fun of how backwards Utah is, but last I looked, they had electricity, running water, postal delivery, and the internet. So not being aware of black-letter law and relevant decisions on his specific area of expertise by Det. Jackboots is recockulous.

This wasn't interference, this wasn't police ignorance, this was explicit indifference to known law, and a blatant attempt to bully a nurse, batter a patient, and break whatever laws he deemed expedient, because badge, gun, and sovereign immunity for stupidity.

That's not just a firing offense, he needs to spend a good long stretch in the federal pen (with his lieutenant, and every officer there), where and when they can spend as much time as they please re-acquainting themselves will the details of the law they were formerly expected to enforce.

Ignorance by The Law is no excuse.
These were, indeed, deliberately law-breaking thugs with an attitude.

Book 'em, Dan-o.

And then sue their asses naked.

So, hey, same day as the national tsunami-$#!^storm broke, guess who's suddenly, 5 weeks later, suddenly on leave, and under criminal investigation?

Salt Lake City police say an officer seen on video dragging a screaming nurse from a hospital and handcuffing her will be put on paid administrative leave after prosecutors called for a criminal investigation. 

Police Chief Mike Brown said in a statement Friday that his department will comply with the investigation into Detective Jeff Payne. He arrested nurse Alex Wubbels after she refused to allow blood to be drawn from an unconscious victim, in line with hospital policy. 

Salt Lake County's Unified Police Department will run the criminal probe into Payne's actions on July 26, which got widespread attention after Wubbels and her lawyers released the dramatic video Thursday.

Brown and the mayor of Salt Lake City have apologized for the incident and changed their policies to mirror hospital protocols.

———

An Idaho police department is thanking a Utah nurse for stopping a Salt Lake City officer from obtaining a blood sample from one of their reserve officers who was unconscious in a hospital. 

Police in the eastern Idaho town of Rigby said Friday that William Gray was severely injured in a Utah crash in July when the semi-truck he was driving for work was hit by another car. 

Rigby police said in a statement they didn't know until Thursday that the nurse was arrested after refusing to allow blood to be drawn from Gray.

The department thanked the nurse, Alex Wubbels, and hospital "for standing firm" and protecting the Gray's rights.

So, one step ahead of the mob with torches and pitchforks, the District Attorney in SLC decided to get ahead of this thing in a big way.

Somebody's going to jail, folks.
This guy stepped on his dick and took the whole city with him, and they're piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssed!
And pretty effing embarrassed.

UPDATE: RTWT.

Hours after Salt Lake City’s mayor and police chief apologized for an officer handcuffing a hospital nurse who refused to take blood from an unconscious patient, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill announced Friday he wanted a criminal investigation into the episode. 

“On the face of the evidence, there is concern that is raised about this officer’s conduct,” Gill said in a Friday interview. “But the whole point of an investigation is to gather the information about this situation.” 

Gill said he discussed the situation with Mayor Jackie Biskupski and Chief Mike Brown on Friday morning, and they agreed it would be appropriate to conduct an investigation in the name of ”transparency and institutional accountability.”

City officials said late Friday the Unified Police Department would conduct the criminal probe. Meanwhile, an internal affairs investigation by Salt Lake City police into the officer, Detective Jeff Payne, also is ongoing. Payne was placed on administrative leave Friday afternoon, as was a second unnamed officer connected to the confrontation.  

Earlier in the day, Brown and Biskupski called the University Hospital nurse, Alex Wubbels, to apologize. They then held a news conference, saying they were alarmed by what they saw on police body camera footage of the arrest, which took place July 26, and said changes to police blood draw policies and officer training had been made. 

The mayor said Thursday was the first time she had seen the officer body camera footage documenting the encounter between Payne and Wubbels. The chief said it was the first time he had seen the video in full. The footage became public Thursday during a news conference held by Wubbels’ attorney, Karra Porter, who said no claim or lawsuit has been filed. 

“I am sad at the rift this has caused between law enforcement and the nurses we work so closely with,” Brown said. ”I want to be clear, we take this very seriously.”

“What I saw is completely unacceptable to the values of my administration and of the values of the Salt Lake City Police Department,” added Biskupski. “I extend a personal apology to Ms. Wubbels for what she has been through for simply doing her job.”

Another officer, Denton Harper, who was dispatched to the hospital to assist Payne, wrote in his report that he asked Payne “why he didn’t look into drafting a search warrant for the patient’s blood. Payne told me Logan Police Department said they didn’t have enough probable cause to do so.”

 The story also has the detective in question, on his bodycam, stating to his supervisor that in his side job, he would "bring all the transients to this hospital, and take all the good patients elsewhere" in retaliation for refusing to let him break the law there that day.

I think Jackboots better start planning his criminal defense, and saving up his money to pay for groceries after he's fired for cause.