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The family of a man who died after being strapped face down on a stretcher and died is now filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the two Illinois paramedics accused of his murder and the ambulance service they worked for.
Peter J. Cadigan, 50, and Peggy Jill Finley, 45, now face first-degree murder charges in the death of Earl Moore Jr., 35, who suffocated to death after two EMTs tied Moore to the prone stretcher, also called a prone position.
The couple appeared at the Sangamon County courthouse via video link on Thursday. They did not waive their right to a preliminary hearing that was scheduled for Friday at 9 a.m.
They are currently being held at the Sangamon County Jail in Springfield on $1 million bond each. ABC News informed.
The wrongful death lawsuit was announced Thursday during a press conference. while Moore’s grieving mother, Rosena Washington, wept and said, ‘they tied him up like some kind of animal…they killed him.’ She now demands that Cadigan and Finely be held accountable for the death of her son.
Earl Moore Jr., 35, who suffocated to death after two EMS workers strapped him face down to the gurney on December 18, 2022. Moore had been hallucinating from alcohol withdrawal.
EMT Peggy Jill Finley, 45 (pictured) faces first-degree murder charges in Moore’s death
EMT Peter J. Cadigan, 50, faces first-degree murder charges in Moore’s death
‘I needed emergency medical attention. Instead, these workers treated him like he wasn’t even human,” Washington said. “They tied him up like some kind of animal,” he said. ‘They killed him. My baby suffocated from his actions and his inaction.’
Sangamon County State’s Attorney Dan Wright said Moore died after being loaded into an ambulance in the prone position, meaning face down. He said straps were attached to his back and lower body to keep him on the gurney.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents the family, spoke as the victims’ three sisters and niece stood nearby wearing shirts and pins in Moore’s honor, crying.
“We filed a wrongful death lawsuit this morning because we want to make sure that this family gets full justice, not just partial justice, like we did with the family of George Floyd and the family of Ahmaud Arbery, not partial justice but full justice.
We want to make sure that we have criminal culpability and civil liability. Why should black people only be granted partial justice? No, Earl was a whole person and we demand complete justice.
Crump paused before saying, “Tragically, in America we’ve seen a pattern, a pervasive pattern of police not having the same respect, the same consideration, the same professionalism, extended to people of color, especially men. blacks”.
I mean, they don’t extend humanity to black men and we saw that with so many tragedies that have become hashtags in America, whether it’s George Floyd or Ahmaud Arbery, whether it’s Laquon McDonald here in Illinois so many.
President Haley and it was so tragic that now this pattern seems to be spilling over to first responders, to EMTs because when you watch the video, the reason it’s so shocking is because they don’t offer Earl consideration.
I mean, from the moment they get there, it’s like it’s a hostile encounter and not like Earle is threatening them or making them feel inferior. He’s down there screaming for help.
Teresa Haley, president of the Springfield chapter of the NAACP, said at a news conference last week that the body camera video she saw was eerily reminiscent of George Floyd.
Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died after Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds in police custody on May 25, 2020.
They literally pulled his hands back and tied him up. He couldn’t move even if he wanted to and he’s face down,” Haley said. ABC News informed.
‘They showed no compassion towards this individual. He should be alive today.
“We filed a wrongful death lawsuit this morning because we want to make sure that this family gets full justice, not just partial justice, like we did with the family of George Floyd and the family of Ahmaud Arbery, not partial justice but full justice,” Ben said. . crump said
Moore’s grieving mother, Rosena Washington (pictured left), told a news conference Thursday that she wants Cadigan and Finley to be held accountable for her son’s death.
Paramedics Cadigan and Finley responded to a call for a man “suffering from hallucinations due to alcohol withdrawal” at an apartment in Springfield, Ill., on Dec. 18, shortly after 2 a.m., according to a news release from the Springfield Police Department.
The video shows Moore on the ground as one of the paramedics can be heard yelling at him to “sit down” and “stop acting stupid” before strapping him upside down on a gurney so tightly that Moore suffocated to death.
Body camera footage that was released last week by the Sangamon County State’s Attorney’s Office.
The disturbing video shows Cadigan and Finley yelling at Moore while he was on the ground. One of them jokes: ‘We won’t take you’ and ‘Seriously, I’m not in the mood for this nonsense’, as profane words are used.
Officers are seen helping Moore walk to the ambulance as a stretcher waits for him. Finley and Cadigan are then seen strapping Moore to the gurney in what police called a “prone position,” or lying face down.
A Springfield Police Department statement said officers on the scene attempted to provide Moore care after they said paramedics “acted indifferently to the patient’s condition.”
“Officers took steps to assist the patient, to provide him with the care he needed, including waiting on scene to ensure medical personnel loaded the patient into the ambulance,” the statement said.
“The officers, who are not emergency medical professionals, are not trained or equipped to provide necessary medical treatment or to transport patients in this type of situation.”
Police said Moore died after being transported to a local hospital.
One of the EMS workers standing near the Earl Moore stretcher
Paramedics Peggy Jill Finley and Peter Cadigan strap patient Earl Moore to the gurney. The couple have been charged with first-degree murder in Moore’s death.
A closer view of the two paramedics who placed Moore face down on the gurney causing him to suffocate and die.
The EMT pushing Moore on the gurney into the ambulance before being transported to the hospital during the December 18, 2022 incident
At Thursday’s news conference, personal injury attorney Bob Hilliard, who also represents Moore’s family, said the wrongful-death lawsuit alleges Moore suffered while “slowly suffocating.”
“He was not suffering from a life-threatening medical condition, he was suffering from a medical condition. The life-threatening part was during transportation,” Hilliard said.
“Earl really did, for those three minutes as his life slipped away, he suffered unimaginably.”
Finely’s lawyer, W. Scott Hanken, told DailyMail.com they were disappointed that the judge found probable cause and bound the matter for trial.
“We understood and appreciated that the State had such a low threshold and burden that it was highly unlikely that the case would end up at the preliminary hearing stage,” Hanken said.
“We trust that the State will not be able to sustain its burden of proof, that is, beyond a reasonable doubt, in the present trial.
We continue to believe that the proper place to litigate this matter is in the civil arena, as any conduct alleged here was not criminal and the State was unable to point to any affirmative act by Peggy Finley that was the proximate cause of death here.’
When contacted by DailyMail.com, the LifeStar ambulance service said they had “no comment”.