Alex Wubbels' Arresting Officer Jeff Payne Claims He Did Nothing Wrong - Plans to Sue
Former Detective Jeff Payne lost his job over his "confrontation" with Utah Nurse Alex Wubbels over a year ago as she was trying to protect the rights of her unconscious patient. Now he is saying he did nothing wrong and plans to sue the city that fired him.
Former Detective Jeff Payne lost his job over his "confrontation" with Nurse Alex Wubbels over a year ago. Now he is saying he did nothing wrong.
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"She was doing her job," he said. "I was doing my job. And unfortunately, it conflicted. And I am the one who bears most of the burden for it."
Payne insisted he had implied consent to get the blood sample from a crash victim under Alex Wubbels' care. When she refused, Payne handcuffed her.
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He insists he was only following orders that day - his boss, Lt. James Tracy, had ordered that he arrest Wubbels if she didn't let him draw the patient's blood.
When asked if he thought he used too much force, he said he was just following his training.
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I couldn't believe this incident went worldwide
He plans to seek $1.5 million associated with lost wages and benefits, emotional distress and defamation of character.
What are your thoughts? Should he be awarded $1.5 million for simply "doing his job"?
I see you have been taken in by the public smear campaign against the victim. Please educate yourself. McDonalds used to keep their coffee up to 190* for no apparent coherent reason. An elderly woman sustained third degree burns on her genitals and thighs because because of near-boiling coffee. She was in the hospital for over a week and required skin grafts for these injuries. All she asked for was her medical expenses ($20,000 or so) and good old McD's offered her $800. She sued because she was disabled and damaged as a direct result of negligence and because her extremely reasonable request for compensation was rebuffed. A judge ultimately ordered $640,000 and they settled for an undisclosed amount, which means it was probably less than that.
"Other documents obtained from McDonald's showed that from 1982 to 1992 the company had received more than 700 reports of people burned by McDonald's coffee to varying degrees of severity, and had settled claims arising from scalding injuries for more than $500,000.[2] McDonald's quality control manager, Christopher Appleton, testified that this number of injuries was insufficient to cause the company to evaluate its practices. He argued that all foods hotter than 130 °F (54 °C) constituted a burn hazard, and that restaurants had more pressing dangers to worry about." Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants - Wikipedia
she got burned because she did something stupid, why should McDonald's have to pay for her stupidity?
I feel similarly. I dislike the vindictiveness of the increasing practice of people crying that some (relative "little guy") should his/her job for x, y, z things that are nearly always complicated. But this man very clearly became aggressive as a direct result of being told (by a hospital representative during the speaker phone call) that he was "making a huge mistake" and "threatening a nurse." He just lost it. His quasi arrest attempt was nothing more than petulant aggressiveness as a result of choosing to feel that his own authority had been questioned and/or insulted.
The supervisor who who came to the car was quite possibly more appalling and I have no doubt that he is the main problem.
As I recall/not direct quotes:
Why are you involved in this?? You don't have anything to DO with this!!!
Your 'policies' don't affect my legal standing....
You're not trying to understand, you're trying to tell me 'no'
He was just as jacked up as Payne, he showed it through aggressive condescension rather than physical aggression.
There is no excuse for either of these two guys to not have known that under the circumstances they needed a warrant. But that didn't stop them from trying to make someone else look like an obstructionist idiot.
they knew they needed a warrant, and knew they would not get one. I repeat, they both belong in prison.
This is a sad situation ,I was appalled at the video,no nurse should ever be treated like that.I am very surprised by his behavior because nurses and police usually on the same mission to serve the public.We have so many police /nurse marriages since they have many job related stresses in common,the shift work,holidays away from family,floating to other areas and a very very stressful job.I would never want to be responsible for someone losing their livelihood especially after 30 years.You can punish for the offense or in other words let the punishment fit the crime.He is NOT a criminal and had circumstances been different in the universe ,he might have been giving his life for some stranger.The hospital should have shown more balls deciphering and cooling down the situation ,that's what all those bright Docs get trained to do. i have no comment on the decision to sue,it is so commonplace today.
Do not try to deflect the blame! these two cops belong in prison for false arrest, a+b, and kidnapping! and now you want to blame the docs????
As an ER nurse myself. I feel that he was totally wrong in what he did to that nurse. She was doing her job and was following policy and procedures for the hospital where she worked. He felt that he was above the law and acted in a very unprofessional way. It is our job as nurses to protect our patients while under our care, and if that means that we decide to not allow something to be done to our patients than that's what we do (within reason) We are highly educated and take many courses throughout the year on things such as this. Protecting our patients is only part of what we do. He needs to understand that he was in the wrong and deal with it. Trying to sue her is just ridiculous, he needs to admit that he was wrong and simply walk away. My question is where was anyone to back her in this situation? Why didn't the other officers step in when they could clearly see that he was wrong. He took it way to far. He wanted to be seen as a great cop and had total disregard for her and the situation. He just needed to go home lick his wounds and admit that he was wrong and totally unprofessional. Buck up. I have absolutely nothing against police and work with them on almost a daily basis and have the upmost respect for them and what they do. He should of shown the same professionalism and respect for her. Enough said, end of rant.
she got burned because she did something stupid, why should McDonald's have to pay for her stupidity?
I don't know a single person who hasn't spilled a drink on themselves. I also don't know a single person who has sustained third degree burns from spilling a drink on themselves. A lot of people don't know the truth behind that warning so I thought I'd share.
I have the fundamental belief that a restaurant meal should not be served in a way that puts the consumer at pointless risk for catastrophic injury. The court system shares that value, you do not, so I don't think anything I say could persuade you. I'll try not to derail the thread any further.
Specializes in Flight, ER, Transport, ICU/Critical Care.
Don't forget, Officer Angry was there THREE HOURS!
I could kinda get "heat of the moment, everyone gets aggressive, the situation spins out of control" anger (still a very bad move), but after three hours of thought? Nah, this dude had an agenda and he became more enraged once he was told NO.
He became his truest self.
Bullying and cajoling and BS didn't work in his objective. He raised the stakes. He abused his AUTHORITY.
He took Nurse Wubbels freedom. He arrested her because he was ANGRY.
Now, he whines about being ACCOUNTABLE.
* Heck, he is even whining in the media in advance of this "lawsuit" about not having sufficient department training on blood draws. Not even kidding. Really, dude, you are a medic and were a cop for THIRTY years - please stick a sock in it, you are sounding super stupid.*
Officer Payne should be GRATEFUL to his department that they got a release from Nurse Wubbels for a bargain of 500k and he only got fired, but gets to live in his house. Otherwise, me thinks he would be a DEFENDANT, by department and INDIVIDUALLY, in U.S. DISTRICT (Federal) Court where his violation of Nurse Wubbels CIVIL RIGHTS would surely eventually reach a jury and then award real damages.
I almost think he doesn't have reliable counsel and there is no real lawsuit. He is butthurt over being fired for cause and STILL can't process and reflect meaningfully on the matter. He is a doing a media blabbermouth in advance of a 1.5 million lawsuit and his attorney is good with it? Nah - I just don't believe it. That's not the way serious litigation happens and high end attorneys allow their clients to function.
He's tossing a controlled tantrum thinking he will induce sympathy. Poor cop, just doing his job - faced ruin. Please?
Well, I'm fresh out of sympathy - tho, he can find more in the dictionary somewhere between STUPID and SYPHILIS.
Emotional distress and defamation of character. The tape speaks for itself. Is he distressed because everyone saw him behaving badly and sided against him? It's a different world. Act as though everyone has their cellphones recording.
she got burned because she did something stupid, why should McDonald's have to pay for her stupidity?
In the US, some lawsuits are filed to punish the individuals or corporations that do something that they know they should not do, but do it anyway regardless of whether it is harmful to anyone. They can also be filed because an individual wants what happened to them to just be acknowledged or apologized for, especially when it is something that could have easily been prevented.
In this case, McDonald's was serving scalding hot coffee, and knew perfectly well that if it was spilled by someone, they would sustain substantial burns. They just didn't care, and the amounts sought in lawsuits wasn't large enough yet to make them care. The jury awarded the amount they did to punish McDonald's for their blatant disregard of this.
Also, the poor elderly lady spilled coffee on herself as she was trying to add cream and sugar while sitting in the passenger seat of a vehicle. Surely you have spilled something on yourself before, but that doesn't make you stupid, does it? It could make you clumsy, sure, but she was almost 80 years old. At that age, she could have had tremors that made it difficult to hold on to things or her gripping strength may not be very strong. In no way is that stupidity on her behalf, and that is a very callous thing to say.
Even if it was "stupidity" that caused her to spill coffee on herself, when McDonald's knowingly kept their coffee at such temperatures to cause third degree burns, yes, they should have to pay for the substantial medical bills. Surely you can agree that spilling a hot beverage on yourself should not result in burns severe enough to need skin grafts and cost $20,000+ in medical bills, especially in the 1990s, when hospital bills were less than they are now.
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morte, LPN, LVN
7,015 Posts
she got burned because she did something stupid, why should McDonald's have to pay for her stupidity?