This story from the Chicago Sun-Times about a police officer being sued for handcuffing an ER nurse who refused to draw blood from a DWI suspect against hospital protocol and holding her in the back of his cruiser for 45 minutes is disturbing for a couple of reasons. Let’s run down the bullet points:

• Asking an emergency room nurse to violate hospital protocol in order to better ensure that the concentration of alcohol in the suspect’s blood will be higher disrupts the flow of events in a situation in which there are real, actual stakes. It’s essentially saying that the gathering of evidence is more important than treating people in an emergency situation.
• It’s the exact sort of “attitude adjustment” for daring to argue with a police officer that makes so many Americans distrustful of the police. It reaffirms something that a lot of us feel – that the police expect to be treated deferentially in all situations, which fuels a particular kind of resentment: What you want me to do isn’t always, in every situation, more important than what I’m already doing.
• It removes a friggin’ emergency room nurse from the emergency room for forty-five minutes for no good reason. The reason we respect the police is that they devote their lives to increasing safety and protecting us. When they instead decide to remove someone whose job is to provide medical care for people in an emergency situation from their role because they’re upset that they weren’t being treated like the boss of the room, they’re putting innocent people’s lives at risk. Not even the lives of people who are innocent because, like, they haven’t been convicted of anything yet, but they’re suspects so let’s give ‘em some leeway (As with, say, tasing people). No, yanking a nurse out of the emergency room – especially a head nurse who’s responsible for triage – means there’s one less qualified person available to stabilize grandma after the heart attack. So for those who would dismiss the suit because, boo-hoo, she had to sit in the back of a car for less than an hour with handcuffs on – you’re missing the point. The cop didn’t just violate the nurse’s rights, he threatened the health and safety of everyone in the emergency room. Because he was mad that she wouldn’t break the rules and do what he said.

Again, this sort of abuse of power is why it’s hard to justify the demonization of DWI suspects. Not because DWI isn’t incredibly dangerous and incredibly serious. But because when you insist that anyone accused of doing it is a terrible criminal, you justify things like putting an entire emergency room at risk just to teach a nurse who insists on following the rules (and on treating sick people as a more important part of her job than gathering evidence) a lesson for having the temerity to say no to a police officer who’s absolutely convinced of his own righteousness.

EDIT: More on this here and here and here and here.

(Linda Cardellini from ER image via NBC.com, because typing “nurse & police” into Flickr brings up a bunch of inappropriate Halloween costume pictures but not much else.)

Labels: abuse of power, blood draws, dwi, the attitude test

posted by Dan   permalink   0 Comments

The 81st Texas Legislative Session was so unproductive that it has been dubbed by many as "the Seinfeld Session" - the session about nothing. However, just because there was little accomplished and taxpayers' money went largely down the drain does not mean that there was no damage.

Unfortunately, even in a Seinfeld Session, we still can't escape the insatiable legislative urge to rack up a few penalty enhancements and create a few new crimes. And since ignorance of the law excuses no one, I thought I would post the criminal justice highlights of the 2009 Legislative session:

The Good

SB 839: Abolishes Life Without Parole for Juveniles
Amends § 12.31, Penal Code, Capital Felony, to provide that a juvenile convicted of a capital felony that was certified as an adult pursuant to § 54.02, Family Code, will be sentenced to life, not life without parole.

Amends § 508.145, Government Code, Eligibility for Release on Parole; Computation of Parole Eligibility Date, to provide that a juvenile convicted of a capital felony that was certified as an adult pursuant to § 54.02 is not eligible for release on parole until the actual calendar time the inmate has served, without consideration of good conduct time, equals 40 calendar years.

SB 1940: Authorizes Pretrial Diversion Program for Veterans
Adds Chapter 617, to Subtitle E, Title 7, Health and Safety Code, Veterans Court Program Defined; Procedures for Certain Defendants, to provide the commissioners court the authority to establish a veterans deferred prosecution program whereby if a veteran successfully completes a veterans court program, the court shall dismiss the case.

SB 1681: Requires Corroboration of a Jailhouse Informant

Adds Article 38.075, Code of Criminal Procedure, Corroboration of Certain Testimony Required, to require corroboration before a person can be convicted on the testimony of a jailhouse informant. Provides that corroboration is not sufficient if it only shows that the offense was committed.

HB 1736: Increases Payments and Services to Wrongfully Imprisoned
Adds § 103.052, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, Lump-Sum Compensation, to allow lump-sum compensation of $80,000 per each year of wrongful imprisonment and $25,000 per each year served on parole or as a registered sex offender.

HB 2730: Requires DPS To Waive Surcharges for Indigent

Amends § 708.158, Transportation Code, Indigent Status and Reduction of Surcharges, to state that DPS shall waive all driver’s license surcharges for a person who is indigent.

• A person may submit the following to establish indigency: most recent federal income tax return or wages reflecting the person’s household income does not exceed 125 percent of the federal poverty guidelines or documentation that the person is receiving governmental assistance.

The Bad

SB 328: Expands Police Power for Mandatory Warrantless Blood Tests

Amends § 724.017, Transportation Code, Blood Specimen, to expand mandatory warrantless blood draws if a person is arrested for an offense under Chapter 49 of the Penal Code involving the operation of a motor vehicle or watercraft and the person refuses the officer’s request to submit to the taking of the specimen voluntarily and:

• an individual other than the person has suffered bodily injury and was transported to a hospital or other medical facility for medical treatment;


• person is under arrest for DWI with child passenger under 15;


• the person has been previously convicted of DWI two or more times; or


• the person has been previously convicted of DWI with child passenger under 15, intoxication assault, or intoxication manslaughter;

HB 2086: Creates New First Degree Felony Crime of Directing Activities of Criminal Street Gangs and Creates Definition for Gang-Free Zone and Provides Penalty Enhancements

Adds § 71.023, Penal Code, Directing Activities of Certain Gangs, to create the new crime of directing activities of certain criminal street gangs which is a first degree felony.

Adds § 71.028, Penal Code, Gang-Free Zones, to establish gang-free zones and to increase penalty category to the next higher category (except for first-degree felonies) if it is shown that the actor is 17 years or older and commits a crime in a gang-free zone; specifically, if the offense was committed:

• Within 1000 feet of any school, higher education institution, youth center, or playground; or


• Within 300 feet of any shopping mall, movie theater, public swimming pool, video arcade; or


• On a school bus

HB 2240: Creates New Offense of Continual Violence Against the Family
Adds § 25.11, Penal Code, Continuous Violence Against the Family, to create a new offense of continual violence against the family, a third degree felony, if during a 12 month period, a person commits family violence two or more times.

The Ugly

HB 2846: Increases Age of Child Victims for Outcry Statement to 14 and Expands Outcry Statements to Include Acts Other Than the Alleged Offense that Were Committed Against the Child Victim or Other Victim Under 14

Amends § 1, Article 38.072, Code of Criminal Procedure, Hearsay Statement of Child Abuse Victim, to increase the age of a child victim from 12 to 14 for purposes of admitting an outcry statement and to allow outcry statements for criminal attempt of certain offenses.
Amends §2, Article 38.072, Code of Criminal Procedure, Hearsay Statement of Child Abuse Victim, to allow outcry statement of child victim under 14 concerning other crimes, wrongs, or acts other than the alleged offense and allegedly committed by the defendant against the victim or another child younger than 14.

SB 727: Requires Judges to Order DNA Sample Collection for Defendants Granted Probation for a Felony and Juveniles Adjudicated of 3g Offenses

Amends Article 102.020, Code of Criminal Procedure, Costs on Conviction for Offenses Requiring DNA Testing, to require a person placed on community supervision to pay $34 if DNA sample required.

Adds § 54.0409, Family Code, DNA Sample Required on Certain Felony Adjudications, to require the court to, on adjudication of a 3g felony or felony involving a deadly weapon, collect DNA, as a condition of probation, from a juvenile.
Adds Subsection J, § 11, Article 42.12, Code of Criminal Procedure, Community Supervision, to require a judge granting probation to a defendant convicted of a felony to require defendant to provide a DNA sample.

Click here for our full 2009 Legislative Summary of new criminal justice laws.

Labels: blood draws, dwi, juveniles, pretrial diversion, texas legislature

posted by Kristin Etter   permalink   0 Comments