Family Sues IL Ambulance Workers After Patient Dies, Was Strapped To Stretcher Facedown

SPRINGFIELD, IL — The family of an Illinois man who died of asphyxiation after ambulance workers strapped him to a stretcher facedown has filed a wrongful death lawsuit, attorneys announced Thursday.

Earl Moore Jr.’s relatives are bringing the lawsuit against paramedic Peggy J. Finley, emergency medical technician Peter J. Cadigan and their employer, Lifestar Ambulance Service Inc., according to the complaint, published in full by WICS. Finley and Cadigan are both also charged with first-degree murder in a separate criminal case.

“They gave him no professionalism, no humanity,” said attorney Benjamin Crump, who called Moore’s death “barbaric” when he spoke at a news conference Thursday about the lawsuit that was streamed on Facebook by WAND. Crump has previously represented the families of George Floyd, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin and Ahmaud Arbery, according to The State Journal-Register.

Finley and Cadigan arrived shortly after 2 a.m. Dec. 18 at a Springfield home, where Moore was suffering from alcohol withdrawal, authorities have said.

During the incident, captured by police body cameras, Finley, 44, told a distressed Moore that, “you’re going to have to walk because we ain’t carrying you” and “I am seriously not in the mood for this.” Officers had to help Moore outside, where Cadigan and Finley secured him on the stretcher in a prone position, according to police.

“My son was clearly struggling and he needed help,” Rosena Washington, Moore’s mother, said at the news conference. “These workers treated him like he wasn’t even human.”

Moore was pronounced dead around 3:15 a.m., Sangamon County Coroner Jim Allmon has said. The autopsy report stated Moore’s cause of death was “asphyxia due to prone facedown restraint on a paramedic transportation cot/stretcher by tightened straps across the back and lower body, in the setting of lethargy and underlying chronic alcoholism.”

“As soon as he was laid prone facedown and cinched as tight as he could physically be cinched, his fate was sealed,” attorney Robert Hilliard said at the news conference, drawing a connection between Moore’s death and that of Floyd.

The lawsuit noted Finley entered the home not wearing gloves and without medical equipment or supplies, and that she failed to determine how much of a priority Moore should be or identify his main complaint. She also refused to help Moore outside to the ambulance and neither she nor Cadigan assessed Moore’s medical condition, according to the lawsuit, which argued both defendants knew Earl’s position on the stretcher would create a “substantial probability” of harm or death.

The lawsuit calls for a jury trial and is seeking over $50,000.

Edward Unsell, Cadigan's attorney, said he had not seen the lawsuit yet but such civil action was anticipated. As for the murder charge, Unsell said he doesn't believe prosecutors have probable cause against Cadigan.

Cadigan, 50, was also the subject of a wrongful death lawsuit in 2010, after he struck a 7-year-old boy who was riding a bike, according to the Journal-Register, although Cadigan was eventually found not culpable.

W. Scott Hanken, Finley's attorney, also called the criminal charge unwarranted, saying, "What happened may be negligent, but it's not a criminal act and certainly not first-degree murder.”

Moore was 35 when he died. He was a beloved uncle and managed a local McDonald’s where he was well-liked by customers. He leaves behind three sisters as well as his mother.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.