Two paramedics in Springfield, Illinois, are charged with murder. You can’t trust anyone these days. This isn’t one of those cases where they might have done things a little differently and got in a jam over it. These two seemed to know exactly what they were doing and it sure looks a lot like homicide.
Paramedics murder problem patient
Paramedics Peggy Finley, 44, and Peter Cadigan, 50 are charged with the murder of 35-year-old Earl Moore Jr. last month. Moore was in the throes of hallucinations “brought on by alcohol withdrawal.”
Instead of helping him kick his habit, they killed him. The incident happened December 18. News of the scandal broke on Tuesday, January 10, when the Sangamon County prosecutor announced that “both EMTs had been charged with first-degree murder.”
Things began with a call to the local police. They arrived to find Moore “lying in his bed, incoherent but not in immediate danger.”
Lifestar EMS workers Peggy Finley and Pete Cadigan were arrested for the death of Earl Moore Jr. Authorities say the pair strapped Moore face down on a gurney and then took him to the hospital. Where he was pronounced dead. Both workers are held on a $1,000,00 bond. pic.twitter.com/MLGbwIhx3s
— Caryn Eisert (@CarynEisert) January 10, 2023
They radioed for paramedics and started some of the preliminaries. Finley and Cadigan arrived in a LifeStar Ambulance Service vehicle “some 15 minutes later, around 2:20 a.m.” They’re contract emergency medical technicians with the private company.
Eventually, the two paramedics “strapped Moore facedown to a gurney, loaded him into their ambulance and drove him to the hospital.” He was dead within an hour.
The coroner say’s he’s convinced it’s homicide. Moore’s death was caused by being strapped “facedown on the gurney and causing him to suffocate through ‘positional asphyxia.‘”
Should have known better
The two well trained paramedics should have been well aware that “trapping Moore in a prone position” would “create a substantial probability of great bodily harm or death.” As explained by State’s Attorney Dan Wright at the news conference on Tuesday, each face “20 to 60 years in prison if convicted.”
Their attorney is relying on prior good behavior. “Neither has a criminal history nor are they a danger to others,” he told the judge at the bail hearing. “These are two good people that find themselves in a very odd criminal case.”
When police arrived at 2:05 a.m., a woman answered the door. Apparently Moore was the one who called them and wasn’t right in his mind at the time. She “immediately said that, despite the information they may have received, no one in her house had guns.”
And today! We are also screaming. #JUSTICE for Earl Moore Jr #JusticeForEarlMooreJr #EarlMooreJr
Killed by #LifeStarEMS
With their blatant disgusting neglect.
May you all be met with the same energy from help that comes to you, in your demise. Damn Devilshttps://t.co/35XBQPWnbS pic.twitter.com/yh55yZG4fi— Marvin (@Marvin_Blackson) January 12, 2023
Before the paramedics arrived, police verified the “severe alcoholic who hadn’t had a drink in four days” and was “hallucinating — both seeing and hearing things that weren’t there.” The woman kept insisting he “wasn’t violent.” The officer asked if she thought he needed assistance. She did. “I think he needs help, yes.”
When Finley arrived, she already had an attitude. She “approached Moore and asked him his birth date. When he didn’t respond, she started yelling orders at him.” She repeatedly snapped at him to sit up. “He then dragged him several feet before repeatedly ordering him to sit up, the footage shows. When he didn’t, she kept yelling.” She certainly was no Florence Nightingale. “I am not playing with you tonight!”
Her and the cops got him from the bed to the front door where a gurney was waiting. “Officers helped Cadigan place Moore onto it. Noticing he was hanging off slightly, Cadigan lifted him up and dropped his limp body back down onto the gurney. Finley wrapped a blanket around Moore, and then both EMTs strapped him onto the gurney as he lay facedown. They wheeled him to the ambulance and, at 2:26, lifted him into the back.” Moore was pronounced dead at the hospital forty-eight minutes later.
