PLYMOUTH − Attorneys painted two diametrically completely different photos in a courtroom listening to Tuesday of the girl accused of strangling her three youngsters in her Duxbury residence final month.
Her protection lawyer, Kevin Reddington, instructed the story of a household in ache and an overmedicated mom with debilitating postpartum psychological sickness. Assistant District Legal professional Jennifer Sprague, quite the opposite, stated Lindsay Clancy knew precisely what she was doing when she “created the state of affairs” to kill her three youngsters, and prompt she was of sound thoughts.
Clancy, 32, was arraigned Tuesday on two fees of homicide in Plymouth District Court docket, 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 loss of life of her three youngsters.
Clancy wore a medical masks and remained nonetheless through 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.
Choose John Canavan didn’t set a bail quantity within the case, and as a substitute stated Clancy is ordered to remain within the Boston hospital the place she is being handled. Reddington stated 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 stated. After that, she will likely be launched to residence confinement with GPS monitoring, topic to additional hearings. She was ordered to proceed present process psychological well being remedy.
‘I hope someway you discover peace’: Fundraiser for Duxbury’s Clancy family hits $1 million
Feb. 4: Funeral held for Duxbury children as mother Lindsay Clancy’s criminal defense begins
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 − useless inside the house. A 3rd little one, 8-month-old Callan, died at Boston Kids’s Hospital a number of days later.
“It is a very unhappy and really tragic case,” Plymouth District Legal professional Tim Cruz stated.
Court docket listening to reveals ugly particulars in Clancy case
Sprague, the prosecutor, stated Clancy was having “one in all her greatest days” on Tuesday, Jan. 24. She took Cora to the pediatrician and known as a neighborhood CVS to debate over-the-counter treatment choices for her youngsters. Nobody reported something amiss, Sprague stated.
At about 5 p.m., she requested her husband to drive to CVS to select up the kid’s treatment after which Plymouth to select up takeout meals for dinner, which Sprague known as “an uncommon request.” The assistant district legal professional stated Lindsay Clancy then opened the Apple Maps software to verify how lengthy it will 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 treatment 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 stated.
When Patrick Clancy returned residence to Summer season Avenue in Duxbury, Sprague stated he famous the home was quiet. He went to his bed room, the place he instructed police he noticed blood and an open window. He ran to the yard and located his spouse injured however acutely aware. When he requested the place the youngsters have been, she instructed him they have been within the basement.
“Instantly after this occurred she knew what she had carried out, she knew the place the youngsters have been,” Sprague stated. “Patrick may be heard on the 911 name getting 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 stated the youngsters have been all strangled utilizing train bands. Cora and Dawson have been useless when police arrived. Callan’s mind perform couldn’t be recovered by medical professionals, and he died a number of days later. The way of loss of life, Sprague stated, additional signifies that the killings weren’t against the law of ardour.
“She needed to strangle every of them to unconsciousness, after which hold the bands squeezing their little necks for a number of minutes. She may have modified her thoughts at any level in these jiffy, however she did not,” Sprague stated. “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 she or he used Apple Maps to make sure she would have sufficient time to kill every little one.”
Lindsay Clancy stays hospitalized with a number of damaged bones in her again, and Reddington known as her “a paraplegic.” Sprague stated one of many first questions Clancy requested on the hospital was “Do I want a lawyer?”
Later, whereas present process a psychological well being analysis, Clancy used her psychiatrist’s telephone to name her husband, and instructed him a voice compelled her to kill the youngsters and herself, Sprague stated.
“Mr. Clancy instructed police the defendant had by no means heard voices earlier than, and he additionally instructed police the defendant had by no means used the phrase ‘psychosis’ with him earlier than,” Sprague stated. “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.”
‘We’re not immune’: Cohasset police chief on Ana Walshe, media frenzy and small-town policing
Reddington: Deaths have been ‘not deliberate by any means’
Kevin Reddington, the protection lawyer, stated Lindsay Clancy’s case is a chief instance of a rustic that routinely fails girls searching for remedy for postpartum despair, nervousness or psychosis.
He stated Lindsay Clancy was below the care of medical professionals who prescribed her a cocktail of medicines that harmed her psychological well-being. He described a lady “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 stated. “It is medicate, medicate, medicate, take the capsules and see if that works. If it would not, enhance the dose.”
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 forwards and backwards with medical doctors about prescriptions ever since, he stated. Reddington described Lindsay Clancy as “a stupendous girl who was completely destroyed by these drugs.”
“This isn’t a state of affairs that was deliberate by any means. It is a state of affairs that, clearly, is a product of psychological sickness,” he stated.
Reddington stated he submitted to the courtroom near 50 letters from medical doctors, family and friends members hailing Lindsay as an unimaginable mom, spouse and nurse. He stated he has additionally acquired messages from “all over the world” from medical professionals and different moms sharing their struggles with postpartum psychological sickness.
“This girl has unimaginable assist. … Letters from her household, mates, folks she has identified because the sixth grade who’ve stayed in contact along with her,” he stated. “Lindsay liked her youngsters.”
‘The South Shore has been via loads’: Local residents process string of tragedies
Extra: Deaths of Duxbury children push postpartum depression and mental health to forefront
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 hundreds attended a vigil held days after the youngsters’s deaths. About 15,000 folks have donated more than $1 million combined 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 combating postpartum diseases reminiscent of despair and psychosis.
A non-public Fb group known as “Lindsay’s Military of Love” has greater than 500 members.
“We’re right here, as mothers and nurses, to indicate our love and assist for Lindsay and the Clancy household,” the group description reads. “Whether or not you labored along with her or noticed her in passing, she was one in all us. She liked her youngsters and was doing her greatest to maintain herself. We have to band collectively to indicate our open assist for one in all our personal.”
In a put up on the fundraising web page, Patrick Clancy confirmed his spouse was combating “a situation” and requested the neighborhood’s forgiveness.
“Our marriage was fantastic 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 true Lindsay was generously loving and caring in direction of everybody − me, exterior youngsters, household, mates and her sufferers. The very fibers of her soul are loving. All I want for her now could be that she will be able to someway discover peace.”
Due to our subscribers, who assist make this protection attainable. In case you are not a subscriber, please contemplate supporting high quality native journalism with a Patriot Ledger subscription. Here is our latest offer.
Attain Mary Whitfill at mwhitfill@patriotledger.com.
This text initially appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Lindsay Clancy faces a judge in deaths of Cora, Dawson and Callan
