foreign [Music] welcome to audit the audit where we sort out the who and what and the right and wrong of police interactions this episode covers interfering implied consent laws and DUI blood draws and is brought To Us by Oren buss's Channel be sure to check out the description below and give them the credit that they deserve on July 26 2017 detective Jeff Payne of the Salt Lake Police Department entered the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City Utah in an attempt to get a blood sample from an unconscious and critically injured patient who had been involved in a fiery two-vehicle crash the accident was caused by the other driver who was fleeing the Utah Highway Patrol at the time of the crash and was killed in the Collision the Logan Police Department which was handling the investigation did not suspect that the patient was intoxicated at the time of the crash but as detective pain to obtain a blood sample to determine if the patient had any chemical substances in his system upon entering the hospital detective Payne spoke with nurse Alex wubbles about obtaining the blood sample and she informed him that she would need to discuss the situation with Hospital administ registrators to determine whether a blood draw could be authorized the interaction that followed was captured on detective Payne's body camera [Music] yes please I'm going to arrest her we have exiting circumstances for a blood drawn a patient that's upstairs she is refusing and my lieutenant says that if she doesn't Salt Lake City police which I'm sure you'll get to meet my lieutenant soon and if I don't get to go get the blood I'm taking her to jail I'd rather not do that I'd rather not do anything either bye I've been threatened to be placed under arrest by this officer here I'm trying to prohibit him from drawing [Music] for us if things still keep going the way they're going I'm arresting her we can't protect you for interfering with the criminal investigation that he's conducting an investigations okay I'm just being told what to do by my entire hospital and I'm being told what to do by my boss and I'm going to do what my boss says there's no reason that this has gotten [Music] elements yeah let's not we're not doing one thing or another until how stupid yeah yeah and I've got more of my guys coming so um agreeing with this officer he needs to have a warrant to find by a judge that says um and there's also the laws that talk about exigent circumstances and implied consent laws which does apply okay I can have you talk to our friends okay well until he says yeah yeah okay she's going to jail why interfering with the criminal investigation for my Watch Commander and I'm not going to argue with him detective Payne states that if he is not permitted to draw blood from the unconscious patient Ms wobbles will be arrested for interfering with a criminal investigation however it is unclear under which statute this arrest was threatened according to section 76-8-305 of the Utah code which defines the offense of interference with a peace officer quote a person is guilty of a Class B misdemeanor if the person knows or by the exercise of reasonable care should have known that a peace officer is seeking to affect a lawful arrest or Detention of that person or another person and interferes with the arrest or detention because detective Payne was not attempting to arrest or detain anyone this statute was plainly inapplicable to Ms wubble's actions likewise section 76-8-306 of the Utah code which defines the crime of obstruction of justice and criminal investigations does not contain any language that would be relevant to Ms wubble's conduct we will discuss the legality of the attempted blood draw later in this episode but assuming only for the sake of argument that officer Payne was legally authorized to obtain a blood sample from the unconscious patient there is a potential argument that denying the blood draw would constitute a violation of section 76-8-301 of the Utah code which defines the offense of interference with a public servant the statute explains that quote an individual is guilty of interference with a public servant if the individual uses Force violence intimidation or engages in any other unlawful act with a purpose to interfere with a public servant performing or purporting to perform an official function however even if the blood draw was legally authorized it is doubtful that a court would conclude that Ms wubble's engaged in an unlawful act by refusing a blood draw that violated the hospital's policies at the command of Hospital Administration likewise a prosecutor would struggle to prove that Ms wobbles refused the blood draw with the purpose of interfering with officer Payne's investigation as she was simply following the terms of her employment therefore even assuming that officer Payne was within his constitutional authority to obtain a blood sample from the unconscious patient it is unlikely that Ms wobbles could be convicted of violating any of these interfering and obstruction of justice statutes [Music] that either go away with blood and biles or body and tone that's my only choices this young lady right here right now is not free to go about her business her watch command if she does not allow me to go get a blood draw from a guy up in the burning unit she's going to jail [Music] they don't want to abide by the implied consent law or exigent circumstances they want it to be a search warrant I've talked to him on the phone she's talked to him on the phone he was the first one to tell her that if I don't get the blood she's getting arrested [Music] I'm just stating what is will happen sir I'm just a nurse trying to protect [Music] you believe it or not I'm trying to protect him too I have two officers [Music] nope do you have an electronic warrant no no no no right so I printed this off this is what I was told to print off I have this it says obtaining blood samples for police enforcement from patients suspected to be under the influence this is something that you guys agree to with this Hospital the three things that allow us to do that are if you have an electronic warrant patient consent or patient under arrest and neither of those things the patient can't consent um he told me repeatedly that he doesn't have a warrant and the patient is not under arrest okay so I take it without those in place I'm not going to get blessed am I fair to surmise that [Music] yeah [Music] I don't know I have no idea why he's blaming I'm just representing she's the one that has told me no Ms wubbles reads the hospital policy involving police blood draws to detective pain and explains that because the patient is not conscious to give consent and is not under arrest the officers cannot draw the blood without a warrant earlier in the interaction detective Payne had argued that so-called implied consent laws apply to the situation and allow him to obtain the blood draw under Utah's implied consent law which could be found in section 41-6a-520 of the Utah code quote a person operating a motor vehicle in this state is considered to have given the person's consent to a chemical test or tests of the person's breath blood urine or oral fluids for the purpose of determining whether the person was operating or in actual physical control of a motor vehicle while having a blood or breath alcohol content statutorily prohibited under the influence of alcohol any drug or combination of alcohol and any drug or having any measurable controlled substance or metabolite of a controlled substance in the person's body however the statute also requires that quote a test or tests authorized must be administered at the direction of a peace officer having grounds to believe that person to have been operating or in actual physical control of a motor vehicle while in violation of any provision therefore Utah's implied consent law unquestionably did not authorize detective pain to obtain a blood sample from the unconscious patient as he had no grounds to believe that the patient had been operating a motor vehicle while impaired we will examine the Constitutional issues involved in police ordered blood draws in a moment but for now it's important to note that contrary to detective Payne's apparent assertions otherwise Utah's implied consent statute does not allow officers to test someone's blood simply because they chose to drive in the state and even if it did such a law would be plainly unconstitutional [Music] restart okay this is unnecessary man you're right this is my department and this is completely unnecessary I'm leaving now with her okay anybody who wants to prevent that that's your option he will be taking them have no pain but what is going on hi sir would you like to speak to this young lady talk to you first okay so they're arresting her she's called people they say no she will not take me up there she absolutely will not thank you I have our privacy officer okay let me chat with her for a while yeah we're breaking the walking yeah we're doing wrong okay listen to me if we're doing wrong there are civil remedies what I'm telling you is that we are not making a mistake okay I've done this for 22 plus years I know what the law is when it comes to surgery what you have done because your bosses are telling you to has been to prevent this officer who's calling have to do a job do his job that's obstructing each other Watch Commander Lieutenant James Tracy who is detective Payne supervisor arrives on the scene and informs Ms wobbles that he is well-versed in search and seizure laws and that she has obstructed Justice by preventing detective pain from obtaining the blood sample now in general the fourth amendment protects citizens against unreasonable searches and seizures and a warrantless search of the person is only considered reasonable under the Fourth Amendment if it falls within a recognized exception to the warrant requirement such as the so-called exigent circumstances Doctrine which applies when an emergency make the needs of law enforcement so compelling that a warrantless search is objectively reasonable in the 2013 case of Missouri versus McNeely the Supreme Court determined that taking a blood draw quote which involved a compelled physical intrusion beneath mcneely's skin and into his veins to obtain a sample of his blood for use as evidence in a criminal investigation was a search for Fourth Amendment purposes because quote such an invasion of bodily Integrity in implicates an individual's most personal and deep-rooted expectations of privacy the court also concluded that the quote natural metabolization of alcohol in the bloodstream does not create a per se exigency that automatically justifies an exception to the fourth amendment's warrant requirement for non-consensual blood testing in all drunk driving cases and that whether a sufficient exigency exists must be determined on a case-to-case basis nonetheless it is essential to understand that the exigent circumstances Doctrine only applies when an officer has probable cause to believe that the individual was driving Under the Influence it should also be noted that in the 2019 case of Mitchell versus Wisconsin which was decided several years after this interaction occurred the Supreme Court held that when quote the driver's unconsciousness requires him to be taken to the hospital before police have a reasonable opportunity to administer a standard evidentiary breath test they may almost always order a warrantless blood test to measure the driver BAC without offending the Fourth Amendment however the court clearly limited this holding to situations where quote police have probable cause to believe a person has committed a drunk driving offense in this situation there was no evidence to support any sort of suspicion that the unconscious patient was intoxicated let alone probable cause to justify a blood draw under the exigent circumstances Doctrine and as a result the officers essentially arrested Ms wubbles for refusing to allow them to violate her unconscious patients Fourth Amendment rights interested I have no idea okay so you're why are you involved because I don't have anything to do because I'm the charge nurse in the unit that he was admitted my job is to help understand where where's the [ __ ] to do in town you're not trying to understand because he's going to tell me what your policies I'm trying to tell you what I need to legally policy right now is contravening what I need overall the officers held Ms wubbles in the vehicle for about 20 minutes before eventually releasing her without filing any charges in late 2017 Ms wubbles reached a 500 000 settlement with Salt Lake City and the University of Utah without even filing a lawsuit Ms wubbles told reporters that she would use a portion of the money to help people obtain body camera footage of incidents involving themselves for free the Salt Lake Police Department conducted an internal investigation into both officers involved in this incident during this investigation detective Payne claimed he was simply following Lieutenant Tracy's orders to arrest Ms wubbles if she did not allow him to draw blood and Lieutenant Tracy claimed that detective Payne withheld essential information from him regarding the situation including the fact that no probable cause existed for the blood draw in October of 2017 detective Payne was terminated for his part in his wobble's arrest in a notice of decision issued by Chief Mike Brown the 17-page letter noted several violations of department policies and informed detective Payne that quote your conduct toward Ms wubbles was inappropriate unreasonable unwarranted discourteous disrespectful and has brought significant disrepute on both you as a police officer and on the department as a whole detective Payne appealed his termination to the Salt Lake City Civil Service Commission but the results do not appear to have been made publicly available the department also decided to demote Lieutenant Tracy to a police officer 3 position which is two steps down from his previous rank of Lieutenant Chief Brown also issued a notice of decision to Lieutenant Tracy explaining his demotion in which he listed several policies that Lieutenant Tracy had violated and stated that quote your immediate and impulsive decision to order detective Payne to arrest Ms wobbles without first taking the time to fully inform and appraise herself of all the relevant facts and circumstances has adversely affected public respect and confidence in the department and brought significant disrepute on both you as a lieutenant and Superior officer and on the department as a whole Chief Brown also noted in the letter that quote I was disappointed in the manner and tone with which you spoke to Ms wubbles in hospital Administration you did not exhibit the requisite courtesy and respect we expect from our watch commanders Lieutenant Tracy appealed his demotion to the Salt Lake City Civil Service Commission and in 2019 the commission upheld Chief Brown's decision to demote him in 2019 detective Payne filed a lawsuit against the department in the city setting forth claims of breach of contract breach of implied duty of good faith and fair dealing wrongful termination defamation libel and or slander and false light publicity although detective Payne's attorney at one time claimed that he wanted to apologize detective Payne later told reporters that he never intended to say he was sorry because quote I don't think there's anything that I need to apologize for instead as detective Payne claimed in his lawsuit he believed that the department made him a quote Pariah and Fall Guy and that he quote took the blame for what was apparently an out-of-date policy handbook and whole scale failure to train officers on what the law was and how it would apply to the given situation in January of 2022 detective Payne's lawsuit was dismissed at the request of both detective Payne and the defendants this likely indicates that the parties reached some sort of settlement agreement but the details have not been publicly released as a result of Ms wubble's arrest the Utah State Legislature passed HB 43 in 2018 which updated the state's implied consent law to clarify more explicitly when police officers are authorized to take blood draws in potential DUI cases however it should be noted that hb43 did not change the substance of the law and the attempted blood draw involved in this incident was in clear violation of Utah's implied consent law as it existed at the time overall detective Payne gets an F for repeatedly attempting to bully Ms wobbles into allowing him to obtain an unconstitutional blood sample demonstrating a complete lack of understanding of applied consent and exigent circumstances laws and forcefully arresting Ms wobbles for simply doing her job although detective Payne claimed he was just following orders police officers are individually responsible for knowing and complying with the law and he cannot excuse his ignorance regarding both the applicable statutes and the Constitution by blaming a superior officer I agree with Chief Brown's determination in his notice of decision in which he told detective Payne that quote it appears to me that despite withholding all of the relevant information from Lieutenant Tracy you quickly made the decision to regard his order as justification for performing a custodial arrest of Ms wubbles who had already become the object of your irritation the evidence strongly supports the conclusion that you viewed Ms wobble's as engaging in contempt of cop and chose to use Lieutenant Tracy's order as a shield to allow you to punish her if she persisted in telling you no detective Payne's repeated refusal to take responsibility for his own mistakes or even apologized him as wobbles for his cruel and unconstitutional actions is inexcusable and clearly demonstrates that he does not have the demeanor necessary to Be an Effective and professional member of law enforcement Lieutenant Tracy also gets an F for ordering detective pain to arrest Ms wobbles for refusing to allow an unconstitutional blood draw berating Ms wobbles for telling detective Payne no when she was well within her rights to do so and speaking to Ms wubbles in a rude and condescending manner when he was actually the one who did not know the law although Lieutenant Tracy claimed that he did not have all the relevant details and blame detective pain for failing to inform him that no probable cause existed to support the blood draw I find this assertion questionable at best as he can clearly be heard in the body camera footage telling Ms wubbles that the patient was the quote unquote victim in the crash even if Lieutenant Tracy was not specifically informed that probable cause was not present the fact that the blood draw was being attempted from the victim of a crash should have raised red flags about the constitutionality of the blood draw and a professional officer would have confirmed the details of the situation instead of just assuming that the blood draw was lawful just like detective Payne Lieutenant Tracy appeared to be infuriated that Ms wubbles dared to tell a police officer no even though she was simply attempting to set boundaries to protect your patient's constitutional rights which suggests that Lieutenant Tracy has an over inflated sense of his own authority and a lack of respect for the rights of citizens additionally the condescending manner in which he spoke to Ms wubbles was particularly appalling given just how wrong he actually was about the situation and in my opinion Lieutenant Tracy should be grateful he only received a demotion Ms wubbles gets an A plus for maintaining a professional and respectful demeanor for the majority of the encounter ensuring that the officers did not conduct an unconstitutional blood draw on an unconscious patient and standing firm in her professional and ethical obligations to protect her patients bodily Integrity even when faced with repeated threats of arrest and when speaking to Lieutenant Tracy after she was handcuffed and placed in a police vehicle although she did lose her composure during her forceful arrest she appeared to Simply Be Afraid and outraged and this is a perfectly understandable response to such unimaginable Behavior by a police officer I commend Miss wobbles for her courage and integrity in the face of police ineptitude and her Fierce commitment to protecting her patient at all costs even though she should never have been put in this situation in the first place I hope others can learn from her example of how to refuse unlawful police orders in a firm and respectful manner let us know if there is an interaction or legal topic you would like us to discuss in the comments below thank you for watching and don't forget to check out my second channel for even more police interaction content [Music] thank you