Newlywed Arrested After Rushing Wife to Hospital

[q0192837465]

When a newlywed cancer survivor with a heart condition started showing stroke symptoms, her husband knew he needed to get her to the hospital immediately. Now, the new groom faces a felony charge from an encounter with a police officer he says delayed his wife's access to treatment.

Just married last week, Eric and Aline Wright of Chattanooga, Tenn., both medical professionals at Erlanger Medical Center, were enjoying what was supposed to be their honeymoon when Aline's speech became slurred and her face began to droop on Wednesday. During the ride to the hospital, Eric says he paused at two red lights but ran them both. After passing through the second red light, a police cruiser pulled behind the couple's vehicle, following it with lights and sirens on to the hospital.

Eric, a trained medic who served two tours in Iraq, said he knew getting Aline to medical care as quickly as possible was critical and at first felt glad when the officer pulled in behind them.


Eric said he reasoned that instead of pulling over and wasting time explaining the medical emergency in a potentially life-or-death situation, he could have that conversation with the officer at the hospital. "As long as my wife gets into the hospital and gets taken care of then we can talk about things like red lights," he told AOL News.

But, according to Eric's account, Chattanooga Officer Jim Daves blocked Eric, who was carrying Aline, a left-leg amputee, from immediately entering the hospital.

"I remember having to stop. I was trying to explain the situation, but he didn't really stop to listen. He never asked what her condition was," said Eric. "I remember having to step around him to get into the emergency room."

According to WATC NewsChannel 9, the officer's written affidavit says, "Defendant stopped in the ER entrance and jumped out and ran. Police made contact with Defendant at the passenger side of his vehicle and I grabbed the Defendant's arm and he pushed me away scraping my arm with his fingernail. Defendant yelled and said it was an emergency..."

The officer further wrote, "Defendant pushed through the crowd and carried a female back into the emergency room and place[d] her in a room with no permission of the hospital staff."

Eric denies those allegations.

"I never had any [physical] contact with the officer at all," he said. Furthermore, he said, he called the emergency room to alert them of the situation and let them know he would be arriving.

Eric said after he entered the hospital, the officer tried to come into the area where Aline was being treated, interrupting her care.

"At that point it was crucial I be present," Eric told AOL News, saying his wife was unable at the time to accurately relay the advancement of her symptoms and her medical history.

Courtesy Wright Family
Eric and Aline Wright say a Chattanooga, Tenn., police officer prevented Aline from reaching medical treatment as quickly as possible when she was showing signs of a stroke.
Eric said the officer told him that he would be charged with a felony and needed to turn himself in to police. The new groom went to Hamilton County Jail on Thursday and was told there was no warrant out for his arrest.

The couple thought that the ordeal was over.

"But apparently it wasn't. I was awakened abruptly by people coming in the room," on Friday, Aline told WRCB. Eric was arrested and charged with assault on police, disorderly conduct, reckless endangerment, a felony count of evading arrest and other traffic violations, according to a Chattanooga police blotter. Aline was released from the hospital on Friday. Eric said doctors have not determined whether or not she had a stroke, but added she was going to follow up with the neurologist.

"Right now she's trying to rest and get through this," he said.

A police spokeswoman told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that there was a supervisory complaint filed against the officer after the incident. The officer's supervisor reviewed the complaint, determining that "no policy violations, rules or procedures or laws were broken," the spokeswoman told the paper. Calls by AOL News for comment from the department have not been returned.

Eric is out on $7,500 bail. A court date is scheduled for July 9. Eric said he has been suspended from the hospital because of the felony charge, though he hasn't been convicted. The hospital's public relations department has not responded to AOL News' request for comment.

"It's definitely a financial burden to me and my wife," said Eric, who added the couple may consider filing a civil suit. "This is really going to end up costing me and my wife thousands of dollars."

Power tripping police FTMFL. Hope it won't happen to other people.

[FI-Z33]

wow..what an inconsiderate officer..someone's life was in danger here

[CP.AR]

officer needs his leg chopped off. what a dickhead

[Gumby]

Scraped your arm with his fingernail? What a dick.

[jtanner_]

Wow... as if the situation wasn't worse enough

[Presto]

Be sure to always post the source:

Source: http://www.aolnews.com/nation/articl...pital/19523650

[dark0821]

shit..if the court decides to side with the officer..
>.>

[8thcivic]

Now thats the kind of officers i hate. The officer should have let Eric go and question him after, instead he was being a heartless hero trying to block and fuk people over. I bet if this happened to the officers wife (if that dick even has one), he would do the same as what Eric was doing regardless.

[TRD Rs200]

fucking pigs, they think that they're on top of the world. FFFFFfFUUUUUUUUUU

[Vitality]

fuk the police. fuk, fuk, fuk the police.

[hchang]

The news was more biased for the newlyweds, the officer's story might be the truth for all we know, but it doesn't have a light shining on it. "Scraping" the police officer's arm might have been kind of understandable, because personally if my wife's life was in danger, I'd do whatever it takes to get her to more advanced medical personnel.

But if the newlyweds story is true, that's a really dick move to be pulling. Going in and interrupting medical care really crossed the line though. Thought cops were supposed to care for the safety and security of all citizens. Shame on the police officer.

[typ.]

stupid coppers.

[JSALES]

wow, fucking stupid

[PiuYi]

didnt a similar situation happen with the black dude? football player driving escalade? there was a video i think....

[NSX]

^^^

YouTube

[insomniac]

^holy shit = =
he didnt even get to see her last breath.
at least he got laid off.

[NSX]

^ he resigned later
Couldn't effectively be police officer any more in the community outrage towards him.

[$_$]

^^
how can he have no compassion at all to what's going on?

[Nocardia]

this happened to a group of us in Princeton:

Friend crashed a bike and had a branch through his leg at his knee. My brother in-law drove him to the hospital asap because the guy that crashed was in and out of consciousness and lost a fair amount of blood. Police pulled him over on the drive to princeton because he was driving ~150km/hr, gave him a ticket, escorted him to the hospital and I think gave him a ticket for undue care and attention as well.

[seakrait]

not that i agree with either of the police officers' actions but in their shoes doing their job, you see a car driving away from you even after you've tried to pull it over. you're not exactly sure what's up as people running away from you usually means they've got something to hide. they've finally stopped and they're trying to enter the building after hurriedly trying to explain their story to you... but you want them to slow down and to double-check their story. who knows what they're up to. i can see why the police officers would be wary.

not quite sure why the driver didn't call 911 to get dispatch to let the officer behind him know what was up. then again, the officer still might not have believed the guy's story.

or it could just be a case of a n officer being personally affronted by someone ignoring his commands...

lose-lose either way.

i mean, if he pulled over and spoke with the officer, perhaps then the officer would have helped them or radio'd for EMS. but i suppose the time delay seemed critical to the husband.

[fishing666]

excellent.

If the story is true, officer should just slap a speeding ticket and be done with it.

[tonyvu]

thats fucking stupid

[slammer111]

Here we go boys and girls.. **UPDATE**

Man arrested after rushing wife to hospital; officer put on paid leave

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/21/ten...tal/index.html

(CNN) -- The Chattanooga, Tennessee, police department has placed an officer on paid administrative leave after he arrested a man who was speeding and ran three red lights as he tried to rush his wife to a hospital, police said.

The couple believed she was having a stroke, they said.

But in his affidavit, the officer said that the man's speeding caused him and another vehicle to "slam on the brakes" to avoid collision.

Lt. Kim Noorbergen of the Chattanooga Police Department said Officer James Daves will remain on leave until an internal affairs investigation comes to a conclusion over Wednesday's incident involving newlyweds Eric "Jessie" Wright and his wife, Aline.

According to Wright, he and his wife were at their home on Wednesday night when she began showing possible signs of a stroke, with symptoms including numbness in her arms and a facial droop.

Wright said that his wife, who lost a leg to cancer, ran the risk of having a stroke because of the chemotherapy used to fight the cancer.

Wright -- a trained emergency medic -- said he took his wife's vital signs and decided to take her to the emergency room at nearby Erlanger Medical Center, where they both work. An ambulance would have taken an additional 20 to 30 minutes, he said.

Wright said after carrying his wife to their car, he called the medical center to report that they were on the way, and he drove with his emergency blinkers on, blew his horn and was "cautious" as he crossed the red lights.

Daves fell in behind Wright at an intersection, with his police car lights and siren on. Wright said he was too close to the hospital to stop, and upon arrival he immediately carried his wife to the emergency room because she did not have her prosthetic leg.

The police officer confronted him, Wright said, and told him that he was "going to send me to jail." Wright said Daves also referred to him with an obscenity.

Daves could not be reached for comment Monday. But in his affidavit, in addition to saying that Wright nearly caused a collision, Daves wrote that " (the) defendant stopped in the ER entrance and jumped out and ran. Police made contact with Defendant at the passenger side of his vehicle and I grabbed the defendant's arm and he pushed me away scraping my arm with his fingernail. Defendant yelled and said it was an emergency."

"Defendant pushed through the crowd and carried a female back into the emergency room and placed her in a room with no permission of the hospital staff," Daves writes.

He also said Wright's registration was expired.

Wright said at the hospital, Daves threatened to file felony charges against him. He said that after spending the night with his wife, he went to the jail to turn himself in. Jail personnel told him there were no warrants for his arrest, Wright said

But Friday morning, he was taken into custody by the hospital security officers and taken to the Hamilton County jail where he spent the day before he was released on a $7,500 bail, charged with seven felonies, Wright said.

Wright said he feels that Daves' actions at the emergency room endangered his wife's health "and that he (Daves) was trumping up charges to get back at me."

CNN affiliate WTVC reported that Aline Wright was out of the hospital by Friday morning and, while she had stroke-like symptoms, she was not diagnosed as having had a stroke.

[Nightwalker]

Seven felonies, what a dick.

[Vale46Rossi]

Psh, Paid Vacation.