Lisa Hofstra, a nurse at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, has filed a civil lawsuit against the City of Chicago and a Chicago Police officer named Rodriguez (first name unknown) after she was arrested for wanting to speak to a supervisor before taking the blood from a suspect on Rodriguez’s orders.
Hofstra was the nurse in charge when Rodriguez demanded that she take a blood sample from a suspected drunken driver. Since the suspect was not admitted, there are obvious liability and ethical issues presented by such a demand. Hofstra made the reasonable request to speak first to a supervisor. Rodriguez allegedly responded by losing his temper, arresting Hofstra, and putting her in cuffs in a patrol car.
It is hard to imagine a rationale to support such conduct or the alleged crime that she was arrested for by Rodriguez. A police officer cannot order a nurse or doctor to perform this procedure against their will. Such an arrest, therefore, is doubly abusive and should raise serious questions about the fitness of this individual to serve as an officer.
For a video account from Hofstra, click here.
Somewhere deep in the belly of Chicago, a plaintiff’s attorney smells blood and starts to howl.
Let us Howl together. Let us howl together while they are on their knees. Let us get that blank check and cash it at the bank.
The dork should be sued.
I wonder if she was read her Miranda rights? Oh, yeah, not so important anymore.
Is there ANYTHING you CANNOT be arrested for anymore??
Charles,
We do not have very much that you cannot be arrested for unless you are of the privileged caste.
AY
where you been hiding?
charkles grashow –
“Is there ANYTHING you CANNOT be arrested for anymore??”
warrantless wiretapping/searches, political assasination squads, domestic propoganda seiges, politicization of high-office, high-level government fraud/theft/corruption, blowing up WTC 7,
wars of aggresion, war crimes, being Kanye West etc.
On the story however, it does seem that the report and comments neglect to observe that BAC deteriorates quickly. So maybe the
officer(S) felt that the head rn had to be removed so they could bark down other rn staff and get a timely BAC sample. I don’t know the regs or contingincies there, but coerced sampling is an all-too-common procedure that certainly has better and legal paths of execution.
Thanks for standing up, Lisa!
AY said, “I wonder if she was read her Miranda rights?”
—
What are Miranda rights, AY?
LOL!
I was thinking back to the previous post about George Washington. If students today don’t know who are first president was, would they even have a clue about this basic right? Do most people understand they have rights at all (except “free speech” – everybody loves that one!).
PS. I hope the hospital joins the suit-festival that will surely be geared up over this little state-sponsored temper tantrum.
charkles grashow
“Is there ANYTHING you CANNOT be arrested for anymore??”
—
Torture. Lying to Congress. Mass wire-tapping. Small stuff.
Stel Pavlou,
I lol’d
Stel Pavlou:
Yep atta boy!
She’s lucky she wasn’t tasered.
Or that her face wasnt slammed into the ground and her teeth broken.
Stel,
Every time I start to think I’m witty, somebody here shows me how it’s really done.
Stel,
Bravo, sir! Most well played. Asking empirecookie which empire the cookies are made from just seems pointless after that that stoke of genius.
One of the first things I was taught when I was a medical intern was, “Never piss off the nurses. They can make your life a living hell.” Hopefully the cop doesn’t find himself a patient any time soon.
That didn’t take very long.
We discussed the police use of powers to compel hospital staff to perform such testing in the thread Indiana Officer Not Satisfied When Breathalyzer Clears Man, So They Use of a Catheter and Then Charge Him With Obstruction When He Is Shown Again to Be Sober.
I wrote later in the thread:
Yes, the question sounds absurd… until it isn’t.
Meanwhile, this hospital in Austin TX refuses to do DUI blood tests, even with a court order. Why should hospitals have to take on the liability for these tests anyway? I think the hospital correctly argues that these tests are outside of their role as medical care providers, and that the government cannot compel them to perform such testing.
charkles grashow
“Is there ANYTHING you CANNOT be arrested for anymore??”
—
Stel Pavlou
Torture. Lying to Congress. Mass wire-tapping. Small stuff.
===================================================================
Stupidity on Wall Street and reckless banking.
This is an incredible travesty. I would agree that the City needs to open up their wallets and dig down deep. The Police Department needs to discipline this officer without hesitation. Kudos to the nurse and I hope she squeezes the city real hard.
“The tort of false imprisonment [in Illinois] is defined as “an unlawful restraint of an individual’s personal liberty or freedom of locomotion.” Toothman v. Hardee’s Food Sys., 304 Ill. App. 3d 521 (5th Dist. 1999).
The essential elements of a cause of action for false imprisonment are that:
(1) The plaintiff was restrained by the defendant; and
(2) The defendant acted without having reasonable grounds
to believe that the plaintiff committed an offense.
Reynolds v. Menard, Inc., 365 Ill. App. 3d 812 (1st Dist. 2006); Toothman v. Hardee’s Food Sys., 304 Ill. App. 3d 521 (5th Dist. 1999).”
(From Tim Rabel, Esq. @ Querrey & Harrow, Ltd.)
There is a new “pilot” program in Texas and Idaho to allow police to draw blood directly without taking suspects to a hospital. In Arizona police have used the Taser on individuals repeatedly in order to force them to submit to these blood test. I’m sure this will all work out well:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_police_dui_blood
“I was looking at people’s arms and hands, thinking, ‘I could draw from that,’” [Officer] Dowell said.
Was the nurse technically “arrested”? The local news story said that she was held in the squad car until someone else drew the blood and then she was “released.” This does not sound like an arrest, where one is typically taken to a station and charged with some crime.
How does “false imprisonment” differ from “kidnapping” under IL law? From a layman’s point of view, it seems that when a police officer does not have legal grounds to arrest someone, but still grabs someone and moves them around against their will, this is the same as some man grabbing a woman off the street and holding her in his car until he feels like letting her go, otherwise known as “kidnapping.”
Is “false imprisonment” listed above just a special-case law for cops so that they aren’t liable under the broader kidnapping law?
(FYI to readers around the country/world: a sizable chunk of Chicago’s budget (also known as “my tax dollars at work”) goes to paying people (or their families, if they were killed) who were harmed by Chicago police officers.)
TomD.Arch,
An arrest occurs when you are not free to leave. But for him being a pig, it would have been a false imprisonment. I meant to say Police Officer. Oops damage done.