Prosecutor: Paramedics killed man by strapping him facedown

CHICAGO (AP) — Two Illinois paramedics face first-degree murder charges, having been accused of strapping a patient facedown on a stretcher while taking him to a hospital last month.

Illinois authorities filed the charges against Peggy Finley and Peter Cadigan on Jan. 9, nearly a month after 35-year-old Earl Moore died. Under Illinois law, a first-degree murder charge can be filed when a defendant “knows that such acts create a strong probability of death or great bodily harm."

Sangamon County State's Attorney Dan Wright announced the charges at a Jan. 10 press conference after an autopsy. The autopsy report listed Moore's cause of death as homicide, caused by compressional and positional asphyxia as he lay facedown on the paramedic stretcher with straps tightened across his back.

If convicted, Finley and Cadigan could face between 20 and 60 years in prison.

They remained in the Sangamon County jail on Tuesday and were being held on a $1 million bond each. A message left Tuesday at their attorney's office was not immediately returned. They are next due in court on Thursday.

After announcing the charges, authorities released body camera footage from three Springfield police officers showing Moore's encounter with the officers and the paramedics. Wright said Moore's family and community groups were consulted before the footage was released.

The Springfield police department first responded to Moore’s home around 2 a.m. on Dec. 18. The police footage shows that a woman inside the home told one of the officers that Moore was in withdrawal from alcohol and hallucinating.

The video shows Moore lying on a bed, occasionally speaking incoherently or gasping. At one point he rolls onto the floor. Wright said the officers felt Moore was in “medical distress” and called...