PLYMOUTH − Attorneys painted two diametrically totally different photos in a court docket listening to Tuesday of the lady accused of strangling her three youngsters in her Duxbury residence final month.
Her protection lawyer, Kevin Reddington, advised the story of a household in ache and an overmedicated mom with debilitating postpartum psychological sickness. Assistant District Lawyer Jennifer Sprague, quite the opposite, mentioned Lindsay Clancy knew precisely what she was doing when she “created the state of affairs” to kill her three youngsters, and instructed she was of sound thoughts.
Clancy, 32, was arraigned Tuesday on two costs of homicide in Plymouth District Courtroom, the place she appeared through a Zoom name from a hospital mattress. She additionally faces three counts every of strangulation and assault and battery with a lethal weapon within the demise of her three youngsters.
Lindsay Clancy seems through video for her arraignment within the deaths of her three younger youngsters Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023.
Clancy wore a medical masks and remained nonetheless throughout the listening to, solely blinking because the state accused her of strangling her youngsters for a number of minutes every utilizing train bands within the basement of their residence. Reddington and Sprague appeared in individual.
Decide John Canavan didn’t set a bail quantity within the case, and as an alternative mentioned Clancy is ordered to remain within the Boston hospital the place she is being handled. Reddington mentioned his shopper is paralyzed from the waist down.
When the time comes for her to be launched from the hospital, she is to be admitted to a 24/7 rehabilitation facility, Canavan mentioned. After that, she might be launched to residence confinement with GPS monitoring, topic to additional hearings. She was ordered to proceed present process psychological well being remedy.
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Police responded to a 911 name positioned by Clancy’s husband, Patrick Clancy, on Jan. 24. He was calling to report his spouse’s obvious suicide try. First responders discovered two of the three Clancy youngsters − Cora Clancy, 5, and Dawson Clancy, 3 − lifeless inside the house. A 3rd little one, 8-month-old Callan, died at Boston Youngsters’s Hospital a number of days later.
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“This can be a very unhappy and really tragic case,” Plymouth District Lawyer Tim Cruz mentioned.
Protection lawyer Kevin Reddington and Assistant District Lawyer Jennifer Sprague on the arraignment of Lindsay Clancy in Plymouth District Courtroom on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023.
Courtroom listening to reveals ugly particulars in Clancy case
Sprague, the prosecutor, mentioned Clancy was having “considered one of her greatest days” on Tuesday, Jan. 24. She took Cora to the pediatrician and known as an area CVS to debate over-the-counter medicine choices for her youngsters. Nobody reported something amiss, Sprague mentioned.
At about 5 p.m., she requested her husband to drive to CVS to choose up the kid’s medicine after which Plymouth to choose up takeout meals for dinner, which Sprague known as “an uncommon request.” The assistant district legal professional mentioned Lindsay Clancy then opened the Apple Maps utility to test how lengthy it could take to drive to the Plymouth restaurant and again.
Patrick Clancy left shortly after 5 p.m. and known as his spouse from CVS to make clear what medicine to purchase.
“It was a very regular name, although he did point out she appeared like she was in the midst of one thing,” Sprague mentioned.
When Patrick Clancy returned residence to Summer time Road in Duxbury, Sprague mentioned he famous the home was quiet. He went to his bed room, the place he advised police he noticed blood and an open window. He ran to the yard and located his spouse injured however aware. When he requested the place the youngsters had been, she advised him they had been within the basement.
Patrick Clancy, of Duxbury, together with his youngsters, Cora, Dawson and Callan.
“Instantly after this occurred she knew what she had carried out, she knew the place the youngsters had been,” Sprague mentioned. “Patrick will be heard on the 911 name coming into the basement. At one level, he calls out, ‘Guys?’ He can then be heard screaming in agony and shock. … When (police) discover Patrick, he yells out, ‘She killed the youngsters.'”
Sprague mentioned the youngsters had been all strangled utilizing train bands. Cora and Dawson had been lifeless when police arrived. Callan’s mind operate couldn’t be recovered by medical professionals, and he died a number of days later. The style of demise, Sprague mentioned, additional signifies that the killings weren’t against the law of ardour.
“She needed to strangle every of them to unconsciousness, after which maintain the bands squeezing their little necks for a number of minutes. She might have modified her thoughts at any level in these jiffy, however she did not,” Sprague mentioned. “The defendant didn’t ‘take benefit’ of the state of affairs when her husband left the house that night time. She created the state of affairs, and he or she used Apple Maps to make sure she would have sufficient time to kill every little one.”
Decide John Canavan on the arraignment of Lindsay Clancy in Plymouth District Courtroom on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023.
Lindsay Clancy stays hospitalized with a number of damaged bones in her again, and Reddington known as her “a paraplegic.” Sprague mentioned one of many first questions Clancy requested on the hospital was “Do I would like a lawyer?”
Later, whereas present process a psychological well being analysis, Clancy used her psychiatrist’s telephone to name her husband, and advised him a voice compelled her to kill the youngsters and herself, Sprague mentioned.
“Mr. Clancy advised police the defendant had by no means heard voices earlier than, and he additionally advised police the defendant had by no means used the phrase ‘psychosis’ with him earlier than,” Sprague mentioned. “The primary time she makes use of the phrase ‘psychosis’ was when she was with a health care provider employed by protection counsel and utilizing his cellphone.”
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Reddington: Deaths had been ‘not deliberate by any means’
Kevin Reddington, the protection lawyer, mentioned Lindsay Clancy’s case is a major instance of a rustic that routinely fails girls in search of remedy for postpartum despair, anxiousness or psychosis.
He mentioned Lindsay Clancy was beneath the care of medical professionals who prescribed her a cocktail of medicines that harmed her psychological well-being. He described a girl “unable” to really feel real emotion because of the medicine.
“Our society fails miserably in treating girls with postpartum despair and even postpartum psychosis,” Reddington mentioned. “It is medicate, medicate, medicate, take the drugs and see if that works. If it would not, improve the dose.”
Protection lawyer Kevin Reddington on the arraignment of Lindsay Clancy in Plymouth District Courtroom on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023.
On Jan. 1, Lindsay Clancy checked herself in to the McLean Hospital for psychological well being remedy. She left Jan. 5, and had been going backwards and forwards with medical doctors about prescriptions ever since, he mentioned. Reddington described Lindsay Clancy as “a wonderful lady who was completely destroyed by these medicines.”
“This isn’t a state of affairs that was deliberate by any means. This can be a state of affairs that, clearly, is a product of psychological sickness,” he mentioned.
Reddington mentioned he submitted to the court docket near 50 letters from medical doctors, family and friends members hailing Lindsay as an unimaginable mom, spouse and nurse. He mentioned he has additionally obtained messages from “around the globe” from medical professionals and different moms sharing their struggles with postpartum psychological sickness.
“This lady has unimaginable assist. … Letters from her household, mates, folks she has recognized because the sixth grade who’ve stayed in contact together with her,” he mentioned. “Lindsay liked her youngsters.”
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A neighborhood in shock
The small city of Duxbury and the bigger South Shore neighborhood responded swiftly to information of the tragedy.
Prayer teams have turned their eyes to Patrick and Lindsay Clancy, and tons of attended a vigil held days after the youngsters’s deaths. About 15,000 folks have donated greater than $1 million mixed to a GoFundMe on-line fundraiser meant to learn Patrick Clancy, and the tragedy has sparked a push to acknowledge and supply assist to these fighting postpartum diseases similar to despair and psychosis.
Lindsay Clancy, of Duxbury.
A personal Fb group known as “Lindsay’s Military of Love” has greater than 500 members.
“We’re right here, as mothers and nurses, to point out our love and assist for Lindsay and the Clancy household,” the group description reads. “Whether or not you labored together with her or noticed her in passing, she was considered one of us. She liked her youngsters and was doing her greatest to maintain herself. We have to band collectively to point out our open assist for considered one of our personal.”
In a put up on the fundraising web page, Patrick Clancy confirmed his spouse was fighting “a situation” and requested the neighborhood’s forgiveness.
“Our marriage was great and diametrically grew stronger as her situation quickly worsened,” he wrote. ”I wish to ask all of you that you just discover it deep inside yourselves to forgive Lindsay, as I’ve. The actual Lindsay was generously loving and caring in the direction of everybody − me, outdoors children, household, mates and her sufferers. The very fibers of her soul are loving. All I want for her now could be that she will by some means discover peace.”
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Attain Mary Whitfill at [email protected]
This text initially appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Lindsay Clancy faces a decide in deaths of Cora, Dawson and Callan