Nurse receives a $500,000 settlement after wrongful arrest

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The Utah nurse who was forcefully arrested after she refused to let a police officer draw blood from an unconscious patient received a $500,000 settlement.

Two months ago, Nurse Alex Wubbels was the subject of body-cam video that went viral as soon as it was released. The video showed Wubbels refusing to let Detective Jeff Payne draw blood from a patient because he needed a warrant and the patient’s consent, according to hospital policy.

The detective, enraged, arrested Wubbels and put her in handcuffs, dragging her outside as she screamed that she wasn’t doing anything wrong.

–Utah nurse sobs as cop arrests her doing her job–

Now, Wubbels and her lawyer, Karra Porter, have announced the $500,000 payout, which will be split between Salt Lake City and the University of Utah, which runs the hospital where the incident took place.

Wubbels intends to use part of the money to help others who are campaigning to get body-cam video released in similar circumstances.

“We all deserve to know the truth, and the truth comes when you see the actual raw footage, and that’s what happened in my case,” she said. “No matter how truthful I was in telling my story, it was nothing compared to what people saw and the visceral reaction people experienced when watching the footage of the experience I went through.”

Part of the money will also go to a nurse’s union as well as toward a campaign to stop the verbal and physical abuse of nurses.