Who Is Jeff Payne? Utah Detective On Administrative Leave After Assaulting Nurse

After the video of a Utah nurse being arrested and dragged into a police car for doing her job, sparked widespread outrage, the police officer responsible for the act, Jeff Payne, has been placed on administrative leave, reports said.

In a press conference Thursday, Alex Webbels accused him of assault and unlawful arrest after the incident on July 26, in which Payne could be seen viciously assaulting Webbels after she refused to let him draw blood from a patient without the patient’s consent.

Initially, when the incident came to light, Payne, who was a part of the Salt Lake City Police department’s blood draw program — where detectives are trained to get blood samples — was not taken off duty. However, the police department’s Twitter feed said that Payne and another unnamed officer had been placed on administrative leave, late Friday. An internal investigation was also launched by the department. Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said Friday that he wanted a criminal investigation into the episode, Salt Lake Tribune reported.

The viral video showed Alex Webbels refusing to let Payne draw blood from an unconscious patient stating hospital policy dictated that blood could not be taken from an unconscious patient, without the patient's consent, unless there is a warrant allowing the draw or the patient is under arrest.

Even after acknowledging that he had none of the three, Payne insisted that he be allowed to draw blood from the patient who was involved in a car crash that killed another person. When Webbels stands her ground, Payne can be seen handcuffing and dragging Webbels ruthlessly from the hospital, saying: “We are done, we are done, you are under arrest.”

Despite Payne’s partner’s efforts to calm him down, Payne drags Webbels into the police car. According to reports, he detained her for 20 minutes before letting her go.

Payne who is also said to work as an Emergency Medical Technician with Gold Cross Ambulance could also be heard in a body-cam video after the arrest saying, “I wonder how this is going to affect my Gold Cross job.” He added, “I bring patients here. I’ll bring them all the transients and bring good patients elsewhere.”

In a written police report after the incident, Payne said when he arrived at the hospital, he was told by Wubbels that he needed permission from the hospital administrators to draw blood, CNN reported.

After waiting for an hour he called Lieutenant James Tracy, the watch commander on duty that night who told him to place Wubbels under arrest for interfering with a police investigation if she refused to provide the sample. Talking about his motive behind drawing the blood, he wrote: "I told them we wanted to blood sample to protect him, not punish him."

According to his LinkedIn profile, Payne attended Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, and was later a paramedic, working in emergency medicine while working towards his associate’s degree.

Payne was also recognized in 2014, for the part he played in the Property Crimes Unit, at the 34th annual Salt Lake City Police Gala, a ceremony where officers were honored for their role on the force throughout the past year, Heavy.com reported.