Man's family seeks justice after paramedics charged with his murder: "They treated my son like he was an animal"
Earl Moore Jr.'s family is vowing to make sure the two Illinois paramedics charged with his death are held accountable.
"They treated my son like he was an animal," his mother, Rosena Washington, said Thursday.
Their legal team, including civil rights attorney Ben Crump, filed a wrongful death lawsuit Thursday against the paramedics, Peggy Finley and Peter Cadigan, as well as their employer, Lifestar Ambulance Service.
On the same day, the paramedics appeared in court, via video link from jail, on charges of first-degree murder. They're accused of killing 35-year old Moore last month by strapping him so tightly facedown on a stretcher that he suffocated.
Police body camera video captured Finley and Cadigan responding to Moore's home in Springfield after he called 911.
"Sit up. Sit up. Now," Finley is heard saying in the video. "I am not playing with you tonight. Sit up."
At one point, she is seen on camera dragging him across the floor. Once they were all outside, Cadigan appeared to place Moore on his stomach on a gurney.
The video raised serious concerns about the paramedics' response to the emergency. But both sides say the police video supports their case.
"When you look at that video, the reason it's so shocking is because they offer Earl no consideration," said Ben Crump, the Moore family's attorney.
W. Scott Hanken, Finley's attorney, said the video speaks for itself and proves his client did not commit a crime.
"It's tragic," Hanken said. "A lot of tragic things happen in life. They are not necessarily criminal, and this one of them."
Edward Unsell, who represents Cadigan, said, "I don't see where the probable cause exists that a crime has occurred."
"But ordinarily, even when you have such a tragedy as the death of Mr. Moore, ordinarily the venue for these would be, as Crump has filed, as a wrongful death case," Unsell said.
A defense attorney involved in the case told CBS News that if the prosecutors don't play the body camera video in a court hearing Thursday, the defense likely will.
As for the wrongful death suit, CBS News has reached out to Lifestar repeatedly for comment.
Cadigan and Finley remain behind bars, each on $1 million bond.
