Prosecutor seeks to bar evidence from other proceedings from entering Moore criminal case
A strongly worded motion filed by the Sangamon County state's attorney Friday afternoon seeks to bar the defendants in the Earl L. Moore Jr. murder case from presenting "evidence, argument or inquiry" about or from other proceedings and their outcomes.
In the motion, prosecutor Dan Wright pointedly wrote that the attorneys for Peggy Jill Finley and Peter J. Cadigan, both emergency medical services workers charged with first-degree murder in Moore's case, were attempting to lock out Moore's family from seeking "whole justice" for his Dec. 18 death.
Wright filed criminal charges against Finley and Cadigan on Jan. 9. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, representing Moore's family and estate, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Sangamon County court with Finley, Cadigan and LifeStar Ambulance Services, Inc. as defendants on Jan. 19.
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Wright noted that W. Scott Hanken, the attorney for Finley, and Cadigan's attorneys, Edward Unsell and Justin Kuehn, have ignored the principle that "parallel criminal, civil and administrative proceedings are not mutually exclusive, and each involves distinct burdens of proof, rights, remedies and procedures."
Defense attorneys have consistently argued, Wright said in the motion, "that the state’s actions to seek justice in this case have no place in a criminal courtroom."
Wright did not comment outside of the motion.
Hanken, who was out of town Friday, had not reviewed the motion.
Hanken called the of filing first-degree murder charges "a stretch" and that the state was trying to turn "an alleged medical malpractice into a crime."
In a response to a motion by the state to admit Memorial EMS System's "Patient Restraint Policy," Unsell said the state's argument "would be good...in a (civil) malpractice case."
By saying the case doesn't belong in criminal court, Wright wrote in the filing, the defense attorneys are claiming Moore's death is only "worthy of partial justice" through the civil case.
In announcing the lawsuit last month, Crump said he wanted to make sure Moore's family got "whole justice, not just partial justice, not piecemeal justice. We want to make sure we have criminal culpability and civil accountability."
There is a motion hearing on the civil suit on Tuesday.
Finley and Cadigan are accused of killing Moore, 35, by strapping him tightly and face down on a stretcher, causing "compression and positional asphyxia," according to Dr. John Scott Denton, a forensic pathologist from Bloomington.
Both have pleaded not guilty.
It would be up to Circuit Judge Robin Schmidt to rule on the motion in the criminal case. Finley and Cadigan are due in court March 20.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, representing Earl L. Moore Jr.'s family and estate in a wrongful death lawsuit in Springfield, Ill., said had Moore's vitals been checked, "it would have been immediately apparent that he was in grave and life-threatening danger."#SJRBreaking pic.twitter.com/k4EjdB6iq7
— Steven Spearie (@StevenSpearie) January 22, 2023
Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788, sspearie@sj-r.com, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Sangamon County state's attorney files new motion in Moore murder case
