Quick way to make a half million

[The White Coat Investor]

Cops in Salt Lake screwed up and arrested a nurse. But half a million? Seriously?

http://www.sltrib.com/news/2017/10/31/utah-nurse-arrested-for-blocking-cop-from-drawing-blood-from-patient-receives-500000-settlement/

University Hospital nurse Alex Wubbels has agreed to a $500,000 payment to settle a dispute over her arrest by a Salt Lake City police officer after she barred him from drawing blood from an unconscious patient, her attorney said Tuesday.

Attorney Karra Porter said at a news conference that the agreement with Salt Lake City and the University of Utah covers all parties and takes the possibility of legal action off the table. “There will be no lawsuit,” she said.

I'm glad I don't pay tax in Salt Lake City. I'd be pretty mad if my tax dollars were being used for that non-sense. 1/100th of that amount seems like enough to me. That works out to $25,000 per minute she spent in the cop car.

Note to cops: Arrest me any time you want for a half million.

[AlexxT]

I think she should have gotten more.

It's not just about the harm done, although being manhandled by the police for trying to protect your patient from assault and battery was probably quite traumatic and might result in real ptsd in some people.  Not to mention that no one at work had the courage to try to help her.

But most of these awards are meant to have a deterrent effect.  If the city has to pay out a few million every time a cop assaults an innocent civilian, then the police dept. will try real hard to make sure that the police act appropriately.

It's like that famous case of the hot coffee at McDonalds.  McDonalds had the coffee at almost boiling temperature, and many people had already been burned, yet McDonalds wouldn't turn down the temperature because some people complained that the coffee got cold in their cars.   So when this woman was burned, the jury awarded her millions because the lawyer asked for several days of profits so that the award would act as a deterrent.  And it did.

Similarly, no US airline is going to forcibly drag someone off an airplane because they want to bump them, thanks to the bad publicity and a very large settlement.

[Hank]

AlexxT wrote:

I think she should have gotten more.

It’s not just about the harm done, although being manhandled by the police for trying to protect your patient from assault and battery was probably quite traumatic and might result in real ptsd in some people.  Not to mention that no one at work had the courage to try to help her.

But most of these awards are meant to have a deterrent effect.  If the city has to pay out a few million every time a cop assaults an innocent civilian, then the police dept. will try real hard to make sure that the police act appropriately.

It’s like that famous case of the hot coffee at McDonalds.  McDonalds had the coffee at almost boiling temperature, and many people had already been burned, yet McDonalds wouldn’t turn down the temperature because some people complained that the coffee got cold in their cars.   So when this woman was burned, the jury awarded her millions because the lawyer asked for several days of profits so that the award would act as a deterrent.  And it did.

Similarly, no US airline is going to forcibly drag someone off an airplane because they want to bump them, thanks to the bad publicity and a very large settlement.

Click to expand...

They aren't taking money from the cops who did this, they are taking money from the taxpayers of Salt Lake City.

This will have the grand total of zero deterrent effect on the city politicians or on the police union.  The taxpayers of Salt Lake take it in the shorts due to an overzealous cop and an overbearing nurse.

[VagabondMD]

I think the nurse could have received more if this has gone to court (and wasted more taxpayer money). She was hardly “overzealous”. She was acting professionally and doing her job and was bullied and manhanhandled by a cop who did not know the protocol. She was also hung out to dry by her administration.

Definitely a “Lounge” thread!

[RogueDadMD]

[Deliberately inflammatory comment deleted by Moderator WCI.

The goal of the lounge is not to maximize controversy, inflammation, and polarization but to give you an opportunity to discuss topics that some may find a little more unrelated or objectionable than the majority of the forum. ]

[VagabondMD]

Response to inflammatory comment deleted.

 

[MPMD]

I'm with WCI on this one.

Basically a good prudent standard would be "would I be willing to go through the same experience to get that amount of money?"

As Jim said, yes I would be ecstatic to be briefly improperly detained and oh-by-the-way celebrated as a hero on social media for days in exchange for $500k. I'd do that every day of the week and twice on Sunday if you'd let me. What a quick path to FIRE!

There are many examples of improper treatment where I'd rather leave the money and keep my innocence.

I'm not an expert on PTSD, but I cannot imagine that this nurse will experience it. Not to denigrate her if she does, just seems like fairly low level trauma.

[Gamma Knives]

Hank wrote:

They aren’t taking money from the cops who did this, they are taking money from the taxpayers of Salt Lake City. This will have the grand total of zero deterrent effect on the city politicians or on the police union.  The taxpayers of Salt Lake take it in the shorts due to an overzealous cop and an overbearing nurse.

Click to expand...

If half a million out of their coffers isn't enough for the city officials to force changes than the award should be higher. If the police department is costing tax payers too much money by violating people's rights than they should vote in people who will make a change.

Tax payers should be angry because this was not an overzealous cop. This was a police officer who assaulted a woman who was doing her job. She calmly explained the policy to the officer and he assaulted her. The citizens should demand better policing both because it is right and because allowing this kind of behavior will cost them money.

[ajm184]

Not a way to FIRE for me.  Police have weapons and over zealous actions can get out of hand.  Google Laquan MacDonald Chicago for some additional perspective on taxpayer settlements, unjustified police actions, and some political corruption on the side.

[East coast]

"But most of these awards are meant to have a deterrent effect.  If the city has to pay out a few million every time a cop assaults an innocent civilian, then the police dept. will try real hard to make sure that the police act appropriately."

Unfortunately, this simply isn't the way the real world works though. Two examples that come to mind -

Chicago spent $662 million in police misconduct between 2004 and 2015. http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20160320/NEWS07/160319758/how-chicago-racked-up-a-662-million-police-misconduct-bill

In NYC it's more than $200 million last year alone! http://gothamist.com/2016/09/21/nypd_misconduct_costs.php

I bet if someone spends some more time sifting through articles, there's another hundred examples out there.

Point is that lawsuits/judgements against government entities don't solve the problem in the same way as if you or I were suited.

 

[nolamd84]

I think she could have gotten more in court. She was professional - he was horrendous.

Regardless, SLC paid exactly whatever they thought it was worth for this to go away. Will they learn from the incident?

[Zaphod]

It didnt seem bad becuase it went pretty smoothly, but we've all seen enough videos to know that can end quickly. As for trauma...she was at work, just doing her job and was assaulted by someone shes used to working with on a daily basis. All trust gone, looking at the world differently, etc...not cool at all.

You do this twice a week and you'd end up dead in short order. Deterrents may work just fine (hard to have controls, etc.). If cities have to fire expensive people, have talks, everyone remembers what happened with xyz, etc...using big cities with big nominal numbers means nothing. I mean if one were guaranteed no physical harm yes, I'd be ecstatic if a drunk cop or otherwise obviously in the wrong officer did something dumb and I got an award like that. Downsides to high, reminds me of disability tables where you see how much digits/limbs are worth...not enough.

Says nothing to the size of her award, which I agree probably could have been more if not settled. Its just the nature of our system. Strange to think its more than a lot of malpractice limits in tort reform states.

[RogueDadMD]

 

Also yes I realize this is going down a completely separate avenue than WCI's post, but that's where my brain leads me.

[When your brain leads you to places that are deliberately inflammatory, you'll find what it spews forth on this forum to be moderated.- WCI]

This nurse had her rights violated and disciplinary action and some redress were warranted.  $500k to her just makes me shake my head when I see how often police departments (in other areas to be fair, as not all police departments are the same and I know nothing about the SLC PD) defend other things their employees do.

[Complete_newbie]

This is dumb

She derserved more. Dragged out like that while conducting herself professionally. She didn't do this for money but she was humiliated.

If this happens to anyone are your going to think like WCI and be like "oh let me think of the tax payer money and poor cops who did this to me" ? no.

I hold same opinion when physician was dragged out of delta or whatever airline with a reserved seat few months ago.

[Craigy]

She had no idea she was earning $500k for her performance.  She was in all likelihood truly terrified, betrayed.  And then she got to be embarrassed in front of the whole world who watched the videos.  If I were arrested I'd be completely livid.  Life is over.  Might lose my license to practice.  Everytime you go to fill out some application you have to tick that "yes" box for arrests and then fill out an explanation and hope for the best.

Some of y'all are ignoring the reality that in most other cases (that was not filmed and did not involve a nurse and did not get huge publicity), this woman would have been dragged through the system and may have actually been criminally convicted for some trumped up charge based on the word of this asshole cop vs hers.  Luckily for this woman there were dozens of other sympathetic people present, including officers, and then there's the fact that anybody hearing that something happened to a nurse immediately takes the nurse's side.

As for the taxpayers being the victims, the taxpayers of salt lake city elected the shitty sheriff and shitty mayor, etc. that allows a shitty cop like that to work and feel justified in doing what he did.

From a legal standpoint, false arrest, false imprisonment is right up there with kidnapping.  A pretty serious felony.  That cop is a horrible person.  Wait for your warrant to arrive.

At least the guy was fired.  Interesting that the feds are criminally investigating the arrest.  Would be nice to see him get what he deserves.