Former Rare Staff
Footage from Salt Lake City police detective Jeff Payne’s body camera appears to confirm the police chief’s claim that he ordered his officers not to push for a blood test from a car accident victim.
Videos by Rare
The video features Payne’s discussion with officers after he violently arrested nurse Alex Wubbels for refusing to draw blood from an unconscious patient without consent or a warrant. As a handcuffed Wubbels sits in Payne’s patrol car, the detective and his watch commander Lt. James Tracy confer about the situation. Their conversation appears to align with Police Chief Gary Jensen’s claim that his officers did not push to get blood from the victim and in fact told Payne not to worry about it because they could obtain the blood through other means.
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“So, I think what we‘ll do is … this isn’t even our case, I’m tired of dealing with it … we’ll call Logan back, and we’ll tell them, hey —” Tracy says before Payne interrupts him to say he’s already spoken with Logan police.
“Are they pissed [we can‘t get the blood]?” Tracy asks, to which Payne says, “No.”
Payne’s admission that Logan police were not upset about not getting the blood, seems to corroborate with Jensen’s claim that his officers were unconcerned with obtaining the test on the spot. Jenson has said one of his investigators specifically told Payne, “Hey, don’t worry about it, we’ll go another route. No worries,” before he forcefully arrested Wubbels.
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