The case has been compared to the death of George Floyd
Two paramedics who were supposed to be saving a man’s life, have instead been charged with his murder.
Peter Cadigan, 50, and Peggy Finlay 40, have been charged after a man suffocated to death when they strapped him onto a gurney face-down on 18 December after he called 911 for help.
The case has since been compared to the notorious 2020 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, but the lawyer for the accused has suggested it is a “very odd criminal case”.
The Sangamon County State’s Attorney Office brought first-degree murder charges against the paramedics on Tuesday over the death of Earl L. Moore Jr. Moore, a severe alcoholic who hadn’t had a drink in days, and called 911 for help.
Cadigan and Finley could face anywhere between 20 and 60 years in prison if convicted, according to NPR Illinois.
Two Illinois paramedics, Peter Cadigan & Peggy Finley, charged with murder after a patient died when they strapped him face down on stretcher for ambulance ride to the hospital
Earl Moore was suffering from alcohol related hallucinations at the time of his death pic.twitter.com/KnGfxZQUif
— Ronald Kelly (@RonK3l) January 14, 2023
Bodycam released of the incident shows police arriving at the Springfield home and a woman answering the door and telling officers “there’s no one here with guns”.
She then explained Moore was having “alcohol withdrawals” and “drunk hallucinations.”
She added: “Every time I take him to the hospital, all they do is release him.
“He’s seeing stuff that’s not there and hearing voices in his head.”
Once the paramedics from the private company LifeStar Ambulance Service turned up, they placed Moore on the stretcher lying flat on his stomach and applied a medical strap across his back and lower body.
Moore was taken to hospital but was pronounced dead about 45 minutes after the paramedics strapped him to the stretcher.
In a coroner’s report obtained by People, Moore’s cause of death was stated as being due to a “compressional and positional asphyxia, due to prone face-down restraint on a paramedic transportation stretcher due to straps across the back”.
Given their experience and training, Finley and Cadigan should have known that strapping Moore facedown would “create a substantial probability of great bodily harm or death,” State’s Attorney Dan Wright said Tuesday, according to the Washington Post.
President of the NAACP’s Springfield chapter, Teresa Haley, compared the tragic death to that of George Floyd who died of positional asphyxia when Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knees into his back for over nine minutes.
Haley told the Illionois Times that it was “almost worse” because body-cam footage showed Moore struggling to breathe.
She said: “If this guy was already … having difficulties breathing, and then you put him on a stretcher facedown, I mean, it was hostile to see the video and how they treated him.
“They literally threw his hands behind and just strapped him down. He couldn’t move if he wanted to.”
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