Doctor Held as He Balks at Taking Blood of Suspect

An emergency room physician at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center was handcuffed and put into a police car for an hour early Tuesday by a Compton policeman after the doctor refused to draw blood from a drunk driving suspect who said he did not want his blood taken, hospital officials said.

Dr. William Watkins, 27--an MIT and Howard University graduate and a third-year resident working in the emergency room of the South Los Angeles hospital, said he showed the officer a copy of a recent legal opinion backing up his refusal to draw the blood from the conscious man, who needed stitches for a small cut on his head.

But according to Watkins and a hospital security guard’s report to Dr. Ted Schlater, acting director of emergency room services, the Compton officer told Watkins, “You draw the blood or go to jail.”

When Watkins answered, “I’m not going to draw the blood,” he was handcuffed and led to a police car, where he sat for an hour before a supervising sergeant showed up and cited him for impeding law enforcement officers before he released him, according to the report.

The blood sample was eventually drawn by registered nurse Dolores Harper, who said she pleaded with the officer, “ ‘Stop, stop, I will draw the blood’. . . . I said ‘Here, you have the blood. Don’t take the doctor to jail.’ Then he handcuffed him and took him away anyway.”

One Compton police official indicated Tuesday that a suspect’s consent is not necessary in a felony. Watkins said he asked the officer at the hospital “where in the code it said that.”

“It was not an unreasonable request,” the doctor said, adding that the officer refused to answer.

“If you (the doctor) perform the test without the patient’s consent,” hospital Medical Director James Haughton said, “it’s assault.”

The hospital could face legal action if it acts without a patient’s consent, he added.

Watkins said he filed a complaint Tuesday at the police station.

“I was humiliated,” he said. “I was not angry, but I thought the reason I was arrested was ridiculous.”

Suspect Booked

The suspect, Cornell Flowers, 26, was booked on suspicion of felony hit-and-run driving with injuries, felony drunk driving and a misdemeanor count of driving with a suspended license, Compton Detective Michael Markey said.

Watkins’ arrest and hourlong absence disrupted emergency service, Schlater said. All of the emergency room’s estimated three dozen beds were full, and Watkins was one of four doctors working the shift when Flowers was brought in shortly before 4 a.m.

“We are outraged because of the impact of this on the rest of our staff,” said Haughton, who demanded and obtained a meeting today on the matter with a Compton police captain.

“It makes our staff feel in jeopardy for doing their job,” he added.

“It’s just an abuse as far as I see it,” Schlater said.

Haughton said the hospital sought the opinion from the county counsel after similar and recurring problems with law enforcement agencies.

In the March 22, 1988, opinion, Deputy County Counsel Sharon E. Yackey wrote, “Thus if an arrestee expressly refuses to submit to testing, hospital personnel may not force the arrestee to submit to the testing.”

The doctors said that according to law, blood cannot be drawn for test against a suspect’s will, but any suspect refusing the test faces mandatory jail time if convicted of the driving offense.

Haughton said he believes that the legal opinion applies to both misdemeanors and felonies.