LINDSAY CLANCY TRIAL TAKES ANOTHER DRAMATIC TURN AS DEFENSE GRILLS PSYCHIATRIST OVER VIRTUAL VISITS, EXPERIENCE AND THE MEDICATIONS SHE PRESCRIBED
Editor’s note: Coverage of this case is disturbing. Scroll with discretion.
A psychiatrist who treated as she spiraled into postpartum mental illness was ripped apart by the killer mom’s defense attorney Monday at the , over virtual-only appointments, the doctor’s brief experience and the meds she prescribed.
Clancy, 35, in January for malpractice, claiming she and other doctors and hospitals failed to diagnose her with bipolar disorder and postpartum psychosis — which the accused murderer says led her to strangle her three young children to death in January 2023.
Clancy’s ex-husband and the children’s father, Patrick, has also filed suit against his former wife’s doctors, whom . Five doctors wrote the labor and delivery nurse a combined 30 prescriptions for in the four months leading up to the mother’s unfathomable act.
She Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, in the basement of the family’s Duxbury, Mass. home, but Clancy’s defense because she was suffering from the rare, severe phenomenon of postpartum psychosis that went undiagnosed and was .
Clancy is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and faces life in prison without parole if convicted.
Follow The Post’s live updates on the Lindsay Clancy murder trial for the latest news in the gut-wrenching case:
Nurse practitioner Julie Paul told the jury that Lindsay Clancy told her she had a panic attack on Nov. 29, 2022 in a message.
Nurse practitioner Julie Paul testifies during Day 10 of the Lindsay Clancy trial.AP
Paul wrote back to Clancy to take an Ativan, go for a run and then enroll in a partial hospitalization program called Women and Infants Hospital in Rhode Island.
The jury was let go around 3:45 p.m. Paul is expected to be questioned by Clancy’s lawyer in the morning.
Nurse practitioner Julie Paul tells jury about at a perinatal clinic on Nov. 22, 2022.
Paul said Clancy told her she couldn’t sleep which was “very typical” for postpartum mothers.
She also told Paul she was “feeling overwhelmed” taking care of her three kids.
Nurse practitioner Julie Paul testifies during the Lindsay Clancy trial on Monday, Aug. 10.AP
and told her to continue taking Ativan for now.
Clancy denied having any suicidal thoughts and hallucinations, Paul testified.
Just four days later, Paul had Clancy stop taking Prozac because she wasn’t able to tolerate it.
Paul then prescribed her antidepressant Mirtazapine (Remeron) and she gave her a one-time dose of Ambien to help her sleep.
Paul told Clancy to stop taking Ativan and replaced that with Klonopin.
Julie Paul, a nurse practitioner who prescribed medications to Lindsay Clancy, has begun testifying.
Nurse practitioner Julie Paul testifies during the Lindsay Clancy trial.AP
Paul started the perinatal clinic in Weymouth, Mass., at South Shore Hospital where Clancy was treated around Thanksgiving 2022 — two months before killing her daughter and two sons.
Paul prescribed Clancy the common SSRI antidepressant Prozac on Nov. 21, 2022. Four days later, , to treat insomnia the postpartum mom had been experiencing for months; Remeron, another antidepressant; and Klonopin, a powerful benzodiazepine that can be used to treat panic disorders, seizures and insomnia.
Accused murderer Lindsay Clancy looks despondent in court Monday, appearing increasingly emotional as her about the mom’s treatment in the months before she .
Lindsay Clancy looks despondent in court Monday, appearing increasingly emotional as her psychiatrist’s hours-long testimony rolled on.via REUTERS
Clancy, 35, at times sat with her chin in her hands, her eyes and nose red, staring ahead but downward.
Tufts has so far testified that she was “concerned” about the postpartum mother in the days leading up to the incomprehensible killings, but though Clancy described difficulty sleeping and thoughts “close” to suicide, the doctor concluded Clancy was not homicidal or suicidal even the day before killing her kids and trying to kill herself.
Clancy’s mother, Paula Musgrove, is in the courtroom today. We’ve spotted her and Clancy’s father, Mike Musgrove, at Plymouth County Superior Court most days of the trial so far.
Clancy, 35, at times sat with her chin in her hands, her eyes and nose red, staring ahead but downward.via REUTERS
Lindsay Clancy’s mother, Paula Musgrove, listens during her daughter’s murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., on Monday.Greg Derr/Pool The Patriot Ledger via AP
Lindsay Clancy’s psychiatrist, , is back on the witness stand after a lunch break.
She is being questioned now by prosecutor Jennifer Sprague.
“Did you see signs of psychosis in any of your interactions with Lindsay?” Sprague asked her witness.
“No,” Tufts responded.
, wants a jury to find Clancy not guilty by reason of insanity on the grounds she was in the throes of that had gone undiagnosed.
Kevin Reddington wrapped up his cross examination of Dr. Jennifer Tufts and court broke for lunch.
The jury is due back around 2 p.m.
Prosecutors could still ask additional questions of Tufts after lunch.
Kevin Reddington is asking Dr. Jennifer Tufts about the fact that Lindsay Clancy confessed to her then-husband, Patrick Clancy, about
“Did you know that at the time she had confessed to her husband that she was having now thoughts of harming her children?”
“No,” Tufts said. “If I heard that I would have been very concerned.”
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington cross-examined Dr. Jennifer Tufts about treating Lindsay Clancy on Monday.Gregory Derr / POOL
“You would have called DCF, right,” Reddington asked referring to the Department of Children and Families.
“I might have,” she responded.
Reddington was referring to around Dec. 16, when Tufts had an appointment with Clancy and she told the shrink she’d gone to Mass General Hospital with and was feeling “hopeless.”
Despite treating Lindsay Clancy for four months, Dr. Jennifer Tufts admitted on the stand Monday that the first time she saw the mother in-person was in the courtroom.AP
Reddington asked about when Clancy told Tufts she was feeling “hopeless” from suicidal thoughts.Gregory Derr / POOL
Patrick was also present during the Dec. 16 video appointment.
Tufts recommended that Clancy seek treatment at a called Women’s and Infants Hospital.
Dr. Jennifer Tufts admitted Monday that she became “concerned” during an October 2022 appointment with Lindsay Clancy after the postpartum mom, then 32, listed a slew of symptoms she had from taking Zoloft.
Clancy met with Tufts on Oct. 20, 2022, after taking the antidepressant for just over a week. She reported myriad symptoms from increasing the dosage after one full week on a lower dose, as prescribed.
Lindsay Clancy with her middle child, son Dawson, in an undated social media photo. He was 3 years old when she strangled him in January 2023.Facebook / Lindsay Marie Clancy
Lindsay Clancy listens to Dr. Jennifer Tufts on the witness stand Monday in Plymouth County Superior Court in Massachusetts.Gregory Derr / POOL
She said she “was crying all day” the day before the appointment, and had brain fog, racing thoughts and anxiety. Clancy told Tufts she was “paranoid of getting suicidal thoughts” and feared that something bad would happen.
The labor and delivery nurse — on maternity leave after giving birth to her third child, son Callan, in May — was also “terrified to start” a new drug, the doctor said.
Tufts told Clancy to immediately stop the medication and discussed alternative options for her, the doctor testified.
“That must have made you pretty concerned?” Reddington asked.
“I was concerned, yes. I gave her some therapies,” Tufts said, noting she also discussed Clancy’s options.
Kevin Reddington quizzed Dr. Jennifer Tufts on a slew of topics Monday about her time treating Lindsay Clancy, including about the fact that the mother of three was scared to take psychiatric medications, had and had reported that she was “close” to feeling suicidal.
“Would it surprise you to know [Clancy] called a suicide hotline not once but twice, and was turned away?” Reddington asked Tufts.
“It does surprise me, yes,” Tufts answered.
He also probed Tufts about the first time Clancy reported suicidal thoughts.
Psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Tufts was asked on the witness stand about treating Lindsay Clancy on Monday.Gregory Derr / POOL
Tufts — who saw Clancy from September 2022 through January 2023 — said the first time she admitted she was concerned about becoming suicidal was on Dec. 1, 2022.
“She denied feeling suicidal but she was close to feeling suicidal,” Tufts explained. “She was fearful of eventually having those kinds of thoughts.”
Reddington also asked about the fact that
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington cross-examined Tufts about Clancy calling a suicide hotline and the medications that were prescribed for Clancy’s symptoms.Gregory Derr / POOL
“She was afraid to take the drugs and she told you she was scared to, right?” Reddington asked.
“She told me she was scared to take Buspirone. I advised her of the risks,” Tufts said, adding that those are “sedation or dizziness.”
Attorney Kevin Reddington is laying into Dr. Jennifer Tufts for — which lists insomnia as a possible side effect — to Lindsay Clancy at their first appointment, despite the struggling mother reporting she was already having trouble sleeping.
“Why would prescribe Zoloft to a young woman who is postpartum, who is telling you she has anxiety and telling you she can’t sleep? She has all of these symptoms and you prescribe a medication with a side effect of trouble sleeping,” Reddington said.
Lindsay Clancy’s defense attorney Kevin Reddington cross-examines her psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Tufts during the murder trial Monday.Gregory Derr / POOL
Psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Tufts sits on the witness stand and said she prescribed Lindsay Clancy the Zoloft as a “first-line medication for people with anxiety.”Gregory Derr / POOL
Patrick and Lindsay Clancy with baby son Callan, daughter Cora and son Dawson in an undated family photo.Courtesy Patrick Clancy
“Individuals have very varied responses to medications,” Tufts replied. “Some have no side effects, some have one or two. It’s impossible to predict.
“Zoloft is a top-choice, a first-line medication for people with anxiety,” the psychiatrist continued.
Clancy told Tufts at that first appointment on Sept. 15, 2022, that were two issues she was dealing with.
Kevin Reddington ripped Lindsay Clancy’s former psychiatrist, Dr. Jennifer Tufts, for conducting all of her appointments with Clancy over video.
“Did you give her a hug? Oh no, you were on telehealth so you couldn’t, could you?” Reddington asked.
“I couldn’t give her a hug but that’s not something psychiatrists normally do with patients,” Tufts answered.
She admitted that the first time she saw Clancy in person was in court. The doctor saw Clancy for four months leading up to the Jan. 24, 2023 murders, including the day before the horrific acts.
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington isabout her alleged lack of experience and the fact that she’s facing a “large lawsuit” from Lindsay Clancy.
“You’re a defendant in a very large lawsuit, right?” Reddington asked.
The prosecution objected, but Judge William Sullivan allowed Tufts to answer.
“Yes,” Tufts said.
Lindsay Clancy in court Monday with defense attorney Kevin Reddington.AP
Lindsay Clancy in an undated photo from her social media.lind.say.969/Facebook
“If you advertise as an expert in postpartum and you have a month of experience plus a residency, would you consider that to be negligent or misrepresentation?” Reddington said.
“I do not believe that I’ve been negligent,” she responded.
“You really want this jury to believe you were an expert?” the attorney pressed.
“I don’t believe that’s the wording that I used. I said it was an interest of mine … I don’t believe I called myself an expert,” Tufts said.
In January, Clancy and her ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, who treated the postpartum mom in the months leading up to their children’s murders, claiming the doctors .
Dr. Jennifer Tufts, the psychiatrist who treated Lindsay Clancy in the months before she strangled her kids, had only been practicing independently for one month when she started treating her.
Lindsay Clancy with daughter Cora and son Dawson in an undated Facebook photo.Facebook / Lindsay Marie Clancy
Tufts was just out of her residency at Boston Medical Center when she began working independently at Aster Mental Health in August 2022.
Tufts’ first appointment with Clancy was in September 2022.
“I was practicing independently … for about a month, but the training is immense,” Tufts , Kevin Reddington.
Tufts said during her four-year medical residency, she probably treated roughly 50 postpartum women.
The third week of trial in Lindsay Clancy’s murder case has begun with her first psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Tufts back on the stand.
The prosecution in Plymouth County Superior Court in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where Tufts described the mother’s appointment with her the day before killing her three children.
Lindsay Clancy’s psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Tufts is back on the witness stand Monday, the tenth day of the murder trial in Plymouth, Massachusetts.AP
The doctor testified that on Jan. 23, 2023, Clancy “absolutely” did not say she was planning to kill herself or her kids, and that did not appear to be experiencing psychosis.
Tufts is now being cross-examined by Clancy’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington.
Lindsay Clancy somberly greeted Judge William Sullivan in court Monday morning before the jury was brought in.
“Good morning, Ms. Clancy,” Sullivan said to the killer mom.
Lindsay Clancy at the defense table Monday with her attorney, Kevin Reddington.AP
Clancy, with a blank stare, gave a brief response but spoke so softly it was unclear what she said.
She is sitting in her wheelchair at the defense table wearing a light pink, long-sleeve blouse, her brown hair flowing down her back in loose waves.