Former SLC police detective involved in controversial arrest hired in Weber County

SALT LAKE CITY — Jeff Payne, the former Salt Lake City police detective who was fired in 2017 after his controversial arrest of University of Utah Hospital nurse Alex Wubbels, has been hired in Weber County.

Payne was hired by the Weber County Sheriff’s Office on Aug. 9, the Weber County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post. He is working as an exempt part-time employee and does not receive benefits, a Weber County human resources official confirmed to KSL.com.

The sheriff's office said Payne is working as a non-sworn, civilian corrections assistant in the jail, where he is assigned to the medical unit. Payne is a certified paramedic and has extensive medical experience, the post said.

He was not hired as a law enforcement or corrections officer and is not serving as such, the sheriff's office said.

"We are aware of his background including the incident that occurred at the University of Utah Hospital in 2017," the sheriff's office said in the post. "In reviewing this information, we did not see anything that would preclude us from hiring him as a part-time civilian employee. We acknowledge the concerns raised from the incident at the University of Utah. We stand behind our decision to hire Mr. Payne as a civilian employee and wish him success here at the Sheriff’s Office."

Wubbels’ attorney, Karra Porter, said Wednesday she did not have any comments regarding Payne’s hiring.

Wubbels’ July 26, 2017, arrest made international headlines after a video of the encounter went viral. She was arrested and taken out of the hospital after she refused to allow blood to be drawn from an unconscious patient.

She spent about 20 minutes in a police car before being released. No charges were ever filed against her.

On that day, Payne was sent to the hospital to procure vials of blood for a crash investigation in Cache County. However, the patient was not a suspect in the crash and did not face charges in the investigation, and he was unconscious and therefore unable to consent to a blood draw.

Neither Payne nor Salt Lake Police Lt. James Tracy, who was the watch commander that night and accompanied Payne to the hospital, had a warrant. So Wubbels, who was working as a supervisor at the time, did not allow them to draw blood.

Payne, a veteran police officer with 28 years of law enforcement experience, was fired from the Salt Lake City Police Department in October 2017.

He sued Salt Lake City for $1.5 million in November 2018, claiming that he was just following orders in the arrest and was wrongfully fired. He also accused the city of defaming his character, violating the terms of his contract and not training him properly.

In the suit, Payne claimed he would have simply left the hospital that day, but Tracy instructed him to arrest Wubbels. Tracy, who was demoted after the incident, contends he merely told Payne to “consider arresting her.”

Payne’s hiring marks the second time this month that someone with a controversial law enforcement past has been hired in the county.

Kayla Dallof, a former University police detective who was assigned to help University of Utah student Lauren McCluskey before she was murdered last year, was hired as a Weber County sheriff’s deputy, the sheriff’s office announced last week.

Dallof was fired several months after McCluskey’s murder due to “dereliction of duty” in an unrelated campus domestic violence case, according to documents released by the U.

The Weber County Sheriff’s Office said Dallof went through a thorough background investigation before she was hired.

"The Weber County Sheriff’s Office stands behind our decision in hiring Kayla and supports her in continuing her career as a law enforcement officer," the sheriff’s office said in a statement. "Since hiring Kayla, she has excelled here at the sheriff’s office in her duties and we look forward to seeing her to continue her success in her career here."

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