Video: Utah Nurse Arrested by Aggressive Cop for Doing Her Job

Alex Wubbels, a nurse at the University of Utah Hospital (and former Olympic athlete) was merely following hospital protocol. But that wasn’t good enough for Salt Lake City Police Det. Jeff Payne, who threw a tantrum and arrested her for doing her job.

The incident occurred because Payne wouldn’t accept that Wubbels could not legally give him vials of one her patient’s blood. The patient, who had been involved in a truck crash, was burned and comatose, and thus could not give consent to the release of his blood. Wubbels clearly explained to the police officer that she could not release vials of her patient’s blood without his consent, an electronic warrant, or the arrest of that patient. Jeff Payne had none of those things, knew that he needed one of them to legally obtain the blood, and decided to arrest the nurse for following protocol perfectly.

“No, we’re done, you’re under arrest,” he says in the video, after Wubbels makes it clear that she won’t break the law to make things easier for him. He would later go on to say that Wubbels had obstructed justice, because he obviously thinks that “justice” means “whatever he wants.”

Wubbels was released later that day. She held an emotional press conference, saying, “I still am confused. I’m a health worker. My only job is to keep my patients safe.” According to NBC, Jeff Payne is still on active duty, pending an internal affairs investigation.

You can watch the full video here.