Utah Detective Fired Over Nurse Video Is Appealing the Decision

Nurse Alex Wubbels is shown during an incident at University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah, in this still taken from police body camera video taken on July 26, 2017 and provided September 1, 2017. (Salt Lake City Police Department/Handout via REUTERS)

Utah Police Detective Jeff Payne, fired from the department last week, is seeking an appeal to get his job back.

Payne, who was also fired from his part-time position at an ambulance company, made headlines a few weeks ago when footage of him arresting a nurse at a Salt Lake City hospital after she refused to draw blood from an unconscious patient for him surfaced. Images and videos of the nurse, Alex Wubbels, being coerced into his car were shared across social media.

Now, Payne’s attorney, Greg Skordas, has filed an appeal of his termination and requested a hearing before the Salt Lake City Civil Service Commission, KSL in Salt Lake City reported.

Wubbels refused to draw blood from the patient, an off-duty police officer from Idaho who was unconscious after he was injured in a crash, citing a policy agreed upon by the hospital and the police department. She also declined to tell Payne where he was.

The video prompted Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski and Salt Lake Police Department Chief Mike Brown to apologize over how the nurse was treated.

“I am deeply troubled by your lack of sound, professional judgment and your discourteous, disrespectful and unwarranted behavior, which unnecessarily escalated a situation that could and should have been resolved in a manner far different from the course of action you chose to pursue,” Chief Brown wrote of the incident last week, announcing the termination of Payne—who had served on the police force for three decades.

Brown said his 27-year-long service “is outweighed by the glaring absence of sound professional judgment and extremely discourteous, disrespectful, inappropriate, unreasonable and unwarranted behavior you displayed in this incident.”

In the appeal, Skordas and Payne said that they’re seeking his reinstatement with the Salt Lake police force.

Meanwhile, Payne’s supervisor, Lt. James Tracy, who told Payne over the phone to arrest Wubbels if she didn’t cooperate, is also planning to appeal his subsequent demotion, The Associated Press reported, citing his attorney Ed Brass.