IL Paramedics Charged With Murder After Strapping Man To Stretcher Facedown: Authorities

SPRINGFIELD, IL — Two emergency medical technicians are charged with murder after they strapped an Illinois man to a stretcher facedown and he died of asphyxia less than an hour later, authorities announced this week.

Peggy Jill Finley and Peter J. Cadigan arrived at 2:18 a.m. Dec. 18 at the Springfield home where Earl L. Moore was suffering from alcohol withdrawal, police said.

Moore, 35, had reported that there were several people inside the residence with guns, which prompted police to respond to the address shortly after 2 a.m., at which time they learned Moore was suffering from withdrawal hallucinations, according to authorities. The officers requested an ambulance, and Finley and Cadigan came to the home but did not bring a stretcher inside or offer to assist Moore, who was unable to walk by himself, police said.

During the incident, captured by police body cameras, Finley 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.”

The officers helped Moore outside, where Cadigan was waiting, and he and Finley secured Moore on the stretcher in a prone position, according to police. Moore was pronounced dead at 3:14 a.m., Sangamon County Coroner Jim Allmon said at a press conference streamed on Facebook by FOX Illinois.

Moore’s autopsy report stated his 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.”

Finley, 44, and Cadigan, 50, knew positioning Moore as they did would create “substantial probability of great bodily harm or death,” Sangamon County State’s Attorney Dan Wright said at the press conference.

The two face potential prison sentences of 20 to 60 years, according to Wright. Both defendants are charged with first-degree murder, and their bonds were set at $1 million each, jail records said.

Their attorney, D. Peter Wise, described Finley and Cadigan to the Washington Post as “two good people that find themselves in a very odd criminal case.” They were employed as EMTs by LifeStar Ambulance Service, whose CEO, Roger Campbell, declined comment to the Post.

“You know, when I saw the video, I thought about George Floyd,” Teresa Haley, president of the NAACP Springfield Branch, said after the press conference in remarks streamed on Facebook by WCIS. “They did not show any compassion whatsoever to this individual.”

Haley said she believed that Finley and Cadigan were rougher with Moore because he was Black.

Black Lives Matter - Springfield expressed support for the charges against Finley and Cadigan and called for local law enforcement to view Moore’s death as an opportunity to implement policies that enable life-saving behavior.

“The Black community faces constant bias and racism in a variety of contexts, including while seeking medical treatment,” the organization said in a prepared statement. “This is exacerbated for those with co-occurring mental and substance use disorders.”