美国国家公共电台 NPR--Family files wrongful death suit against Illinois paramedics charged with murder

Family files wrongful death suit against Illinois paramedics charged with murder

Transcript¹

They are accused of killing² Earl Moore Jr. by strapping⁴ him face-down on a stretcher, causing him to suffocate⁵. NPR's A Martinez talks to attorney Bob Hilliard, who is representing Moore's family.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

The family of an Illinois man has filed a wrongful death lawsuit⁶ against an ambulance company and two of its employees. Paramedics Peter Cadigan and Peggy Finley are accused of killing Earl Moore Jr. last month by strapping him facedown on a stretcher, causing him to suffocate. Police body camera footage of the incident shows Finley yelling at Moore as he lays facedown in his bedroom. And a warning, what you're going to hear next might be disturbing.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PEGGY FINLEY: Quit acting⁷ stupid.

EARL MOORE JR: Time. It's time (ph).

FINLEY: Sit up. Sit up now. I am not playing with you tonight.

MART?NEZ: Cadigan is later seen grabbing Moore and slamming his upper body and face against a gurney. The civil suit also names Cadigan and Finley's employer, LifeStar Ambulance Services, as a defendant⁸. I spoke⁹ with Bob Hilliard, who is representing Moore's family in the civil suit along with Ben Crump, about what happened on that night in December.

BOB HILLIARD: Law enforcement responded, as you can see on the body cams. And the law enforcement folks were very helpful. Earl was prone¹⁰ on the bed and then on the ground. He was barely responsive - not aggressive, just in medical distress¹¹. A paramedic entered the room where Earl was. And as the video, which is pretty self-explanatory, shows, the paramedic was extremely aggressive, extremely agitated¹². She swore at Earl. She didn't attempt to medically evaluate the situation. Her behavior and her objective comments and her demeanor¹³ are clear that she was not performing as a professional paramedic should perform.

And I think in watching the video, it's clear that even the police officers were taken aback because she was so agitated at this man who is having a medical issue. He was then just lifted up and put facedown on the gurney. And the gurney has a slight tilt¹⁴ upward. And the reason that's important is because asphyxiation¹⁵ happens more quickly when the airways¹⁶ have an angle to work against, which is what happened here.

MART?NEZ: And that's what the autopsy¹⁷ determined¹⁸, that Moore's death was caused by positional asphyxia.

HILLIARD: That's correct. And whether you put a knee on a man's neck for eight minutes or you place him facedown on a gurney and you strap³ him in as tight as you can, both will die from asphyxiation, and both will die filled with terror, because asphyxiation is a - it's like being buried alive. It's a slow, terrifying sense of not being able to breathe.

MART?NEZ: Bob, how did you feel when you watched that police body cam video? - because there's parts of it that are really, really disturbing.

HILLIARD: You know, I've been representing folks who have been injured or seeking justice for over 40 years. And I thought I'd seen the worst of the underbelly of humanity in many of the cases that I've been involved in. But for this video, I was speechless.

MART?NEZ: You mentioned the family that you've spent some time with. How are they dealing¹⁹ with the loss?

HILLIARD: Not well. Earl had a tattoo²⁰ on his arm of a rose with the word rose underneath²¹ it, which is his mom's name. And he really was his mama's boy. And he saw her, talked to her every day, very close with his sister and her children.

MART?NEZ: What is the family looking for in its lawsuit?

HILLIARD: Two things. You know, it's not just about the criminal case. This is about full justice for these nice grieving folks. And they want to be sure - and it's already started to happen - that nationwide, every company takes a second look at their training, at their policies, at their retention²² of employees that should not be in this profession.

MART?NEZ: That's Bob Hilliard, the attorney for the family of Earl Moore Jr. Bob, thank you very much.

HILLIARD: You're welcome.

MART?NEZ: LifeStar had no comment on the suit. Attorneys for Cadigan and Finley are not listed in the complaint.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

3 strap   

n.皮带，带子；v.用带扣住，束牢；用绷带包扎

参考例句：

• She held onto a strap to steady herself.她抓住拉手吊带以便站稳。
• The nurse will strap up your wound.护士会绑扎你的伤口。

4 strapping   

adj. 魁伟的, 身材高大健壮的 n. 皮绳或皮带的材料, 裹伤胶带, 皮鞭 动词strap的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• He's a strapping lad—already bigger than his father. 他是一个魁梧的小伙子——已经比他父亲高了。
• He was a tall strapping boy. 他是一个高大健壮的小伙子。

5 suffocate   

vt.使窒息，使缺氧，阻碍；vi.窒息，窒息而亡，阻碍发展

参考例句：

• If you shut all the windows,I will suffocate.如果你把窗户全部关起来，我就会闷死。
• The stale air made us suffocate.浑浊的空气使我们感到窒息。

6 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

7 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

8 defendant   

n.被告；adj.处于被告地位的

参考例句：

• The judge rejected a bribe from the defendant's family.法官拒收被告家属的贿赂。
• The defendant was borne down by the weight of evidence.有力的证据使被告认输了。

9 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

10 prone   

adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的

参考例句：

• Some people are prone to jump to hasty conclusions.有些人往往作出轻率的结论。
• He is prone to lose his temper when people disagree with him.人家一不同意他的意见,他就发脾气。

11 distress   

n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛

参考例句：

• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
• Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。

12 agitated   

adj.被鼓动的，不安的

参考例句：

• His answers were all mixed up,so agitated was he.他是那样心神不定，回答全乱了。
• She was agitated because her train was an hour late.她乘坐的火车晚点一个小时，她十分焦虑。

13 demeanor   

n.行为；风度

参考例句：

• She is quiet in her demeanor.她举止文静。
• The old soldier never lost his military demeanor.那个老军人从来没有失去军人风度。

14 tilt   

v.(使)倾侧；(使)倾斜；n.倾侧；倾斜

参考例句：

• She wore her hat at a tilt over her left eye.她歪戴着帽子遮住左眼。
• The table is at a slight tilt.这张桌子没放平，有点儿歪.

15 asphyxiation   

n. 窒息

参考例句：

• Objective Inquiry into the heavy asphyxiation rescues measure of the new born. 摘要目的探讨新生儿重度窒息抢救的措施。
• Self-contained breathing apparatus(SCBA) may be required to prevent asphyxiation of rescue personnel. 可能要求有自给式呼吸器(SCBA)，以防止救援人员窒息。

16 AIRWAYS   

航空公司

参考例句：

• The giant jets that increasingly dominate the world's airways. 越来越称雄于世界航线的巨型喷气机。
• At one point the company bought from Nippon Airways a 727 jet. 有一次公司从日本航空公司买了一架727型喷气机。

17 autopsy   

n.尸体解剖；尸检

参考例句：

• They're carrying out an autopsy on the victim.他们正在给受害者验尸。
• A hemorrhagic gut was the predominant lesion at autopsy.尸检的主要发现是肠出血。

18 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

19 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

20 tattoo   

n.纹身，(皮肤上的)刺花纹；vt.刺花纹于

参考例句：

• I've decided to get my tattoo removed.我已经决定去掉我身上的纹身。
• He had a tattoo on the back of his hand.他手背上刺有花纹。

21 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

22 retention   

n.保留，保持，保持力，记忆力

参考例句：

• They advocate the retention of our nuclear power plants.他们主张保留我们的核电厂。
• His retention of energy at this hour is really surprising.人们惊叹他在这个时候还能保持如此旺盛的精力。