A nurse who was arrested after refusing to let a Salt Lake City cop draw blood from an unconscious patient has agreed to a $500,000 settlement.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Alex Wubbels reached the agreement with Salt Lake City and the University of Utah (Wubbels was working at the University of Utah Hospital when the officer confronted her). The settlement takes any potential lawsuit against the city or the university off the table.
Wubbels’ confrontation with the officer went viral after the nurse obtained and released police-bodycam and hospital-security footage of the incident.
In the video, Wubbels can be seen explaining to the officer, Detective Jeff Payne, and a hospital official on the phone that Payne did not have an arrest warrant and that the patient, who had been involved in a brutal car crash earlier, was unconscious and couldn’t give consent to having his blood drawn.
“Why are you blaming the messenger, sir?” the official asks Payne through the phone. “You’re making a huge mistake because you’re threatening a nurse.”
At that point, Payne reaches for the phone.
“We’re done here,” the officer says, lunging for Wubbels. “You’re under arrest.”
The incident drew widespread condemnation. Payne was fired on Oct. 10, according to the Tribune. The University of Utah was also singled out in two investigations of the incident because their officers didn’t try to defuse the situation.
Wubbels says that she will use a portion of the settlement to help get bodycam footage of interactions with police at no cost.
Read more at the Salt Lake Tribune.