A Sangamon County judge’s previous rulings denying requests to reduce bail for a paramedic charged with first-degree murder in the suffocation death of Earl Moore Jr. were overturned June 16 by an Illinois Appellate Court panel.
The $1 million bond previously set for Peggy Finley of Springfield and upheld by Circuit Judge Robin Schmidt was reduced to $600,000 on appeal, enabling Finley’s family to post 10% of the bond, or $60,000 – rather than the $100,000 previously required.
Finley, 50, was released from the Sangamon County Jail the evening after the ruling by 4th District Appellate judges James Knecht, Thomas Harris and Kathryn Zenoff, reversing Schmidt’s previous bond decisions.
Finley will be able to remain free on bond as long as she appears for future court hearings and complies with other requirements set by the court. She won’t be allowed to work as a paramedic. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Aug. 2.
The Appellate Court decision said the Circuit Court “abused its discretion” by denying Finley’s requests to reduce bond to $600,000.
Finley’s attorney, W. Scott Hanken, said he, his client and her family were “elated” by the appellate ruling.
Finley was arrested in early January along with emergency medical technician Peter Cadigan, 50, and both were charged with first-degree murder in connection with the Dec. 18, 2022, death of Moore, 35. The charges carry a potential penalty of 20 to 60 years in prison.
Cadigan continues to be held at the jail on $1 million bond. That means he would have to post $100,000 cash to gain release while the criminal case proceeds, though Hanken said he expects Cadigan also to file an appeal to reduce his bond.
Hanken said the ruling in favor of Finley sends “a strong signal about the weakness” of prosecutors’ case against her.
Sangamon County State’s Attorney Dan Wright disagreed.
“There is nothing about the Appellate Court’s reduction of defendant Finley’s cash bond from $100,000 to $60,000 that reflects upon the strength of the state’s case against either defendant,” Wright told Illinois Times.
“It certainly doesn’t diminish our confidence in the case based upon the law and the facts contained in the Illinois State Police investigation,” Wright said. “This is simply a ruling limited to the issue of pretrial bond made by the Appellate Court without a complete record of the evidence against the defendants.”
Wright said the Illinois State’s Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor’s Office, which argued against the bond reduction at the appellate level, is “reviewing all options to seek further review or reconsideration to ensure procedural and substantive accuracy of the Appellate Court’s analysis.”
Wright said prosecutors are “as committed as ever to seeking justice for Earl Moore Jr. and look forward to the opportunity to present all of the evidence to a jury for their application of the law to the facts, as in the normal course of any criminal case.”
The murder charges that Wright filed say Finley and Cadigan, who at the time worked for LifeStar Ambulance, placed Moore face-down on a stretcher and applied straps so tightly that he suffocated.
The charges said that based on Finley and Cadigan’s training, experience and the surrounding circumstances, they knew that “such acts would create a substantial probability of great bodily harm or death.”
Finley and Cadigan have pleaded not guilty in the case, which has attracted nationwide attention from the Black Lives Matter movement and because it may mark one of the first homicide cases against emergency medical service workers involving on-the-job conduct. Moore was Black; Finley and Cadigan are white.
The law firm of civil rights attorney Ben Crump has filed a wrongful death civil lawsuit on behalf of Moore’s family against Finley, Cadigan and LifeStar Ambulance.
A Sangamon County coroner’s autopsy report by forensic pathologist Dr. Scott Denton said Moore died from “compressional and positional asphyxia” after the EMS workers responded to a 911 call at Moore’s home on Springfield’s east side.
The eight-page ruling on Finley’s bond appeal was unusual in its detail. Such appellate rulings on appeals of bond amounts normally consist of one or two sentences.
The appellate ruling said Finley’s ties to central Illinois are “strong, indicating a low risk of flight” and that she has resided in central Illinois almost her entire life. “Her adult children reside there, and so do her grandchildren,” the ruling said, noting that Finley, who is single, “is in what appears to be a romantic relationship with someone in central Illinois.”
The ruling makes some assertions about evidence in the case even though not all evidence was available to the appellate panel. Some of the appellate judges’ statements conflict with arguments and interpretations of the law that Wright has stated in court.
“The charge of first-degree murder is serious, as is the penalty such a charge may bring,” the ruling says. “However, the facts of the offense show defendant is not a danger to the public should she be released. 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.”
Dean Olsen is a senior staff writer at Illinois Times. He can be reached at dolsen@illinoistimes.com, 217-679-7810 or twitter.com/DeanOlsenIT.
This article appears in Bringing health care to community gardens.
