Emergency Workers Charged With Murdering Patient

Illinois EMS workers allegedly restrained him in ambulance improperly
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 11, 2023 3:00 AM CST
EMS Workers Charged With Patient's Murder
Stock photo.   (Getty Images / stockbusters)

Two Illinois emergency medical service employees have been charged with first-degree murder in the death of a patient who was in their care in December. Peggy Finley, 44, and Peter Cadigan, 50, who work for LifeStar EMS, were called to the home of Earl L. Moore, Jr., 35, by police who arrived at the residence and found Moore having hallucinations, Fox News reports. The police had been called there by a family member because Moore was detoxing at the time, WAND-TV reports. Finley and Cadigan allegedly improperly restrained Moore as they placed him into the ambulance to transport him, and he died of asphyxiation.

Moore was placed face-down on the paramedic stretcher and was then secured with the strap tight across his back and lower body, authorities say, which led to compressional and positional asphyxia. The EMS workers, a prosecutor says, had sufficient training and experience to have known that placing him prone on the gurney and then securing him in that way "would create a substantial probability of great bodily harm or death." The incident was caught on police bodycam. A local NAACP president says the paramedics were also hostile toward Moore, who was Black, NPR Illinois reports. Finley and Cadigan each face up to 60 years behind bars if convicted. (More Illinois stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X