The Illinois EMS workers facing murder charges are now being sued by the family of the patient who was strapped face down on a stretcher

• Two EMS workers are facing a wrongful death lawsuit over strapping a patient facedown on a stretcher.
• Peter Cadigan and Peggy Finley were sued Thursday by the family of Earl Moore Jr.

Two EMS workers charged with first-degree murder in the death of a patient they strapped facedown to a stretcher are now also facing a wrongful death lawsuit from the patient's family, attorneys announced at a press conference Thursday.

Peter Cadigan, 50, and Peggy Finley, 44, are accused of killing Earl Moore Jr., a 35-year-old patient who called 911 for help on December 18, 2022.

Moore's mother, Rosena Washington, sued the two emergency responders in Illinois state court. Washington told reporters on Thursday she wanted Cadigan and Finley to be held accountable for her son's death.

"He needed emergency medical attention. Instead, these workers treated him like he wasn't even human. They tied him down like some kind of animal," she said. "They killed him. My baby suffocated because of their actions and their inaction."

Body camera footage from the Springfield police officers at the scene showed the EMS workers treating Moore with apparent disdain and indifference throughout their interaction with him. First, Finely refused to help Moore to the stretcher waiting outside his home, then Cadigan helped position Moore facedown on the stretcher before strapping him in.

Finley could also be heard in the footage making rude comments to Moore throughout the incident and threatening to leave him behind if he didn't walk out to the stretcher on his own. Moore, who was incoherent and in visible discomfort, was seen throughout the footage writhing on his bed and the floor of his bedroom.

"You're gonna have to walk, because we ain't carrying you," Finley told Moore at one point. "Cause I am seriously not in the mood for this dumb s---."

She also ordered Moore to "get up, or you can stay here" at another point. Finley and Cadigan also made no apparent attempts to physically examine Moore or assess his vitals before loading him into the ambulance, according to the footage.

An autopsy report listed Moore's cause of death as "compressional and positional 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."

The civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Moore's family, said Cadigan and Finley's actions that night were inexcusable.

"These healthcare professionals, they knew better. And if they know better, they should do better. But I guess they said Earl didn't matter," Crump told reporters at the press conference. "Well, Earl matters, Black lives matter, and we're going to make sure they're never going to be able to forget the name Earl Moore Jr."

An attorney representing Cadigan did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, nor did a representative of LifeStar EMS.

Finley and Cadigan made their first court appearances in connection to their first-degree murder charges on Thursday morning. They will appear again for a preliminary hearing on Friday.

Finley's attorney, W. Scott Hanken, told Insider Finley intends to plead not guilty. Hanken said he believes the claims his client are better handled in civil rather than criminal court.

"To try to turn this into a criminal matter is something I cannot comprehend," Hanken told Insider. "And I've been doing this for a while."