The Illinois EMS workers charged with killing their patient lied to investigators, and one tried to convince a police officer to lie, prosecutors allege

• The Illinois EMS workers who strapped their patient facedown to a stretcher are accused of lying to investigators.
• One of them is also accused of trying to get a police officer to lie, prosecutors said.

The EMS workers charged with first-degree murder after strapping a patient facedown on a stretcher made multiple false statements to investigators, and one of them "improperly attempted to influence" a police officer, prosecutors alleged last week.

Peggy Finley and Peter Cadigan have both pleaded not guilty to the murder of their patient, Earl Moore Jr. The EMS workers were seen on police body-camera footage responding to Moore's home on Dec. 18, 2022, failing to check his vitals, and then strapping him facedown to a stretcher. An autopsy report said Moore's cause of death was positional asphyxia caused by being restrained in a prone — meaning facedown — position.

Finley, a licensed paramedic, and Cadigan, a licensed EMT, were denied a bond reduction on Monday during a court hearing. Both are being held in the Sangamon County Jail, and their bond is set at $1 million each, according to court documents.

In a court filing, state prosecutor Dan Wright alleged that Finley initially lied to hospital staff and that both Finley and Cadigan lied to Illinois State Police investigators. Finley described Moore as "combative" in her patient care report, though the police body camera footage showed no combative behavior from Moore, and "to the contrary, showed a man in a weakened and confused state of medical distress," Wright said.

Cadigan also falsely told investigators he had never received training on the risks of positioning and transporting a patient facedown, the documents said. Investigators later learned that Cadigan had received training on the subject fewer than six months before Moore's death.

Finley also told investigators that the ambulance's lights and sirens were activated while she and Cadigan transported Moore to the hospital, despite evidence from surveillance footage that no lights or sirens were used, the documents said.

A Springfield police officer who witnessed Finley and Cadigan's conduct at Moore's home also reported receiving a call from Finley shortly after Moore's death, during which she explained that the officer would likely need to provide a statement about the incident.

Finley wanted "to ensure that I told them that Moore was 'responsive' while we were at the residence," the officer said, according to prosecutors. "She also told me to ensure [sic] them that Moore was a 'different patient' from the time he was picked up by EMS to when he arrived at the hospital. I asked her to clarify what she meant, but she did not form a clear answer."

The officer said he ended the phone call and immediately informed his supervisor, according to court documents.

Prosecutors said Finley acknowledged responsibility for Moore's death in conversations with colleagues and investigators. In an interview with the Illinois State Police, Finley "confessed that she knew transporting a patient prone was prohibited by mandatory EMS protocol and could cause death by positional asphyxia," according to the documents.

"MY fuckup was not having SPD flip him over on his back, and transporting him prone. And that was MY fuckup!!!" Finley wrote in a text message to Cadigan and another EMT just hours after Moore died, according to the documents. "I take complete responsibility for that."

Finley and Cadigan's attorneys did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on the prosecution's newest claims.