Peggy Finley (Sangamon County Sheriff’s Department), Earl Moore Jr. restrained face-down on Dec. 18, 2022 (Law&Crime Network bodycam)
An Illinois EMT charged in the compressional and positional asphyxiation death of Earl Moore Jr., a 35-year-old man restrained face-down on a gurney back in December 2022 while hallucinating from alcohol withdrawal, has bonded out of jail after a favorable appellate ruling in her unusual first-degree murder case.
Peggy Finley, 45, bonded out last Friday, just hours after the Fourth District Appellate Court in Springfield found that she was, in fact, entitled under the law to a lower bond, unlike her co-defendant.
“The circuit court abused its discretion in denying defendant’s motion to reduce bond,” the appellate court ruled, lowering Finley’s bond from $1 million to $600,000. “Defendant argues the circuit court abused its discretion in denying her motion to reduce bond from $1 million to $600,000. We agree and reverse.”
Both Finley and fellow EMT Peter J. Cadigan, 50, were charged with first-degree murder after an autopsy found the asphyxiation death of a man in distress that night was caused by the prone restraint.
Prosecutors charged Finley with first-degree murder under the theory that the veteran EMT “performed acts which caused the death of Earl Moore, Jr., without legal justification, in that said Defendant and Peter Cadigan, tightened restraints across Earl Moore, Jr.’s back and lower body in the prone position and transported Earl Moore, Jr. to St. John’s Hospital […] thereby causing death by compressional and positional asphyxia, said defendant knowing based upon [her] training, experience, and the surrounding circumstances that such acts would create a strong probability of great bodily harm or death.”
In essence, prosecutors alleged that Finley is a trained professional who should have known better than to do nothing as Moore was restrained in a way that had a “strong probability” of killing him. In viewing Finley’s case differently from Cadigan’s, the appellate court touched on key nuances: Police were the ones who placed Moore on the Gurney and Cadigan allegedly “repositioned” him, not Finley. The ruling also said that Finley put a blanket over Moore and buckled three seatbelts that Cadigan tightened:
The transcript from the preliminary hearing provides some evidence regarding the events that led to Moore’s death. The transcript reveals the existence of video, but the record does not contain the video. However, testimony establishes, after Cadigan and defendant arrived, police officers initially positioned Moore on the gurney. Cadigan repositioned Moore. It is unclear whether the officers or Cadigan placed him in the prone position on the gurney, but the testimony shows defendant did not participate in the placement of Moore. After Moore was on the gurney, defendant draped a blanket or sheet onto him. She also buckled one of the three seat belts over Moore. Cadigan tightened the belts. Neither the gurney nor the blanket impeded the “nasal passages.”
The court took note that the state had charged Finley and Cadigan with murder “under a theory of accountability” — because the EMTs “acted together as paramedics and both transported Moore to the hospital while Moore laid in the prone position.” Finley has asserted, as the appellate ruling put it, that such a “case ‘is factually like no other’ and ‘is a case of first impression of Illinois.””
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The appellate panel, noting that Finley is a mother of four and a grandmother of six, reversed trial court rulings that had twice denied the first-degree murder defendant a reduced bail, finding that she is not a flight risk nor a danger to the public.
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“The charge of first-degree murder is serious, as is the penalty such a charge may bring. However, the facts of the offense show defendant is not a danger to the public should she be released,” the court found. “While there were acts of violence on Moore, none were physically committed by defendant. Defendant did not assist in placing Moore on the gurney or tighten the straps around him, the two events the State alleges caused Moore’s death.”
Because the accused murderer did not commit violence and is no longer working as a paramedic, the court ruled she is not a threat to commit the same alleged crime.
“The alleged accountability that harmed Moore was the result of defendant’s work as a paramedic,” the panel concluded. “There is no other allegation of defendant’s violence or threat of violence in defendant’s history. As defendant is not permitted to work as a paramedic as a condition of her bond, the public will not be subjected to the same alleged crime by defendant should she be released on bail.”
Sangamon County Detention Facility inmate records no longer show Finley in custody, after she put up 10% of the reduced bond. Peter Cadigan, on the other hand, remains held on a $1,000,000 bond.
On bodycam footage from seven days before Christmas in 2022, Finley could be heard telling Earl Moore Jr., “Get up.”
“Or you could stay here,” she said.
“You’re going to have to walk because we ain’t carrying you,” she told Moore, who was hallucinating after several days of alcohol detox. “I am seriously not in the mood for this dumb s—.”
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