http://www.sltrib.com/news/2017/08/...at-bars-taking-blood-from-unconscious-victim/ A nurse says she was assaulted and illegally arrested by a Salt Lake City police detective for following a hospital policy that does not allow blood draws from unconscious patients. Footage from University Hospital and officer body cameras shows Detective Jeff Payne and nurse Alex Wubbels in a standoff over whether the policeman should be allowed to get a blood sample from a patient who had been injured in a July 26 collision in northern Utah that left another driver dead. Wubbels says blood cannot be taken from an unconscious patient unless the patient is under arrest, unless there is a warrant allowing the draw or unless the patient consents. The detective acknowledges in the footage that none of those requirements is in place, but he insists that he has the authority to obtain the draw, according to the footage. The ER nurse shows the cop the rules - agreed to by the Salt Lake PD - that allow a nurse to take blood from a person. Hospital staff are not allowed to draw blood from an unconscious patient unless: 1 - he gives consent (he was unconscious); 2 - or the officer arrests him (he was not under arrest); 3 - or the officer gets a warrant (no warrant). The nurse obeys the law and refuses to draw blood for the cop. The cop, having his fishing expedition for evidence get stymied by a law abiding nurse, goes crazy and arrest the nurse. Say no to a cop, obey the law, get arrested. Cops think they are above the law. And before the usual crowd of defenders of cops say it was just one bad cop and most cops are good - take a look at the video and all those other cops just standing around watching the out of control cop abuse the nurse.
It's time for a big fat lawsuit for unlawful arrest, unlawful imprisonment and assault directed at the officer and the police department.
that too, but the cop also needs to do time for his crime imo anyone watching this knows it was wrong, this is just common sense, I question the other cops judgment if they did not know it was wrong too I would also go back and look at every other blood draw this cop had a nurse do and throw out the evidence as it may have been illegally gotten, heck I would look at every arrest this cop has ever made, as they are all in question now
sadly the cop probably just wanted a paid vacation..... and the cops just watching and not protecting the public from from this cop are almost as bad, just because he was one of their own doesn't mean they should stand down and let it happen
The united state supreme court has ruled, however, that even if evidence is obtained in an illegal fashion, it can still be used at trial against the accused. The exclusionary rule has essentially been killed, and the fourth amendment no longer applies.
The other cops should have thought about something else as well - the next time one of them is hurt and shows up in that hospital, I wonder what the reaction of the hospital staff will be? What if that particular nurse is on duty and the only one available when an ambulance brings in a cop?
Depending on several factors. If the police discover a warrant after detention, they can then use any evidence they illegally obtained. There are also other exceptions to the exclusionary rule: http://www.salon.com/2016/06/20/pol..._court_scotus_rules_sabotaging_4th_amendment/ None of the above is constitutional but that never stopped SCOTUS from arriving at their typical convoluted "interpretations" of the Constitution.
A warrant is not hard to get the officer of the law contacts their ADA, he or she will electronically fill out the warrant, sent it to any judge (any can sign it if a sitting area judge) then they send it to the hospital in likely an hour or less during the day and at night might take longer. Then draw the blood. There you go.
I thought that poisoned the well and any information even gotten from such illegal evidence could not be used the reason that was true was to prevent cops from abusing the law
The thing is that even if drawing blood was authorized by "law", the cop has no authority to demand anyone actually do it. It's also not illegal for anyone to refuse to do so just because the cop "ordered" it even if the judge signed a warrant allowing that blood be drawn.
Try that the person would then be in the way of a legitimate investigation in the gathering of evidence which was authorized by a warrant. Get this straight the government has all the cards getting in the way of an officer is always a risk. The nurse has the legal right because the Federal Courts said so and the policy followed that and the person wasn't falling into one of the three categories so she had clear guidelines and protection. If he had a warrant the nurse could and would have likely been arrested.
Had there been a warrant in the first place, the discussion would not even be had currently. Beyond that, the nurse on duty was indeed arrested.
Incorrect. In the first place the warrant could only be an authorization to draw blood (i.e. gather evidence), not an order for that nurse to draw it. Second, the nurse was not "in the way" of any investigation, she merely refused to comply with an unauthorized demand. That may be but it's irrelevant to the point. A cop (a state actor) with a loaded gun is always a potential risk to life and safety regardless of his/her authority. So is the US government (the state itself). The nurse had the constitutionally protected legal right to refuse not because the federal courts said so but because she had no obligation to comply with an unauthorized/illegal order by a police officer. Not legally, see above. She broke no law and would not have broken any law even if a warrant had been issued. The hospital authority could have ordered her to draw the blood based on the warrant but if she refused, all that could be done would be for the hospital to fire her and get someone else to do the job. She still would have broken no law.
Unlike the cops, who lack moral compasses and compassion, the nurse will do fulfill her duties to the best she is able.
Would she? She was harassed, physically assaulted, put in handcuffs and brought to jail. That's a very upsetting event with long term consequences. The fact that she was right in some ways makes it even worse. Knowing you are right and finding it that it does not matter, the cop will still abuse his power, changes the way a person thinks about society and the govt. Every person in the ER, not just that nurse, has been rethinking their attitude about the police and their own rights.
Oh, they may not get the most comfortable care. Nurses (and dentists) know how to make things painful and uncomfortable while still delivering exemplary healthcare. Yeah, there isn't coming back from that and it's only becoming more and more apparent just how much of a police state the US has become.
Thanks to the internet, something the police state wants to severely limit, people are being made well aware of just how bad things are in the Land of the Free.
It does not matter how much information the public has access to, if nothing at all can be done about the problem being addressed.
It's not true that nothing can be done, nothing is being done is more accurate. But certainly nothing can be done by people who are ignorant of the facts. “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” - Joseph Goebbels
Nothing is being done, because truly nothing can be done. The united states has had a problem with civil asset forfeiture for decades, and it has been well known about. Yet despite all of the public outcry over such practices, state and federal governments refuse to actually stop the practice, due to pressure from the law enforcement community, because it does not wish to lose access to the revenue generated from such programs. Departments have become dependent on civil asset forfeiture, along with the revenue generated from traffic citations, to make up annual budget shortcomings. Beyond this there is the issue of the courts themselves. Long ago it was decided by the courts that if an individual is arrested, even if the arrest is completely illegal and unjustified, the individual has no legal choice but to submit themselves to the arrest, and let the courts determine whether or not the arrest was unjustified, along with what, if any, compensation they are entitled to. If the officer in question believes the arrest was justified, more often than not they are not found to be at any fault, legal or otherwise, and the arrested party is not entitled to compensation.
I can't disagree with any of the above except for "nothing can be done". The deck is stacked for sure but this country was founded despite a stacked deck. And that's where education is key.
What good can be done when congress will heed to the demands of law enforcement officers over that of the people? What can come about when courts have demonstrated that they will not only forgive the actions of incompetent and corrupt law enforcement officers, but also codify into law that their actions are justified? Short of what would likely be the bloodiest coup the united states has ever witnessed, nothing of substance can be achieved.
