The judge overseeing the Lindsay Clancy trial has ordered that the jurors’ names remain sealed indefinitely after allegations of domestic violence involving the lone holdout were made public.
In an order filed Friday, Judge William Sullivan pointed to growing concerns over juror privacy. He noted that one person had been arrested after allegedly attempting to record jurors on video as they left Plymouth Superior Court.
“There have been identifications of jurors and their personal information without their permission, through other sources,” Sullivan wrote. “At least one juror has requested that the order be extended indefinitely.”
“Based on the circumstances of this trial and the fact that the case continues to receive daily, divisive attention in Massachusetts and beyond, the Court concludes that there is a real and present ‘risk of [personal] harm to the jurors [and] to the integrity of their service.’”
Sullivan also determined that releasing the jury list to the public at this stage could create “a risk of immediate and irreparable injury.”
The jurors remain free to identify themselves or speak publicly if they wish. Several came forward last week to describe the tense, multi-day deliberations, during which one Black juror refused to acquit the mother of three.
Clancy, 36, acknowledged strangling her children with exercise bands. Her defense argued that she had been overmedicated while suffering from postpartum depression, and that the combination of prescription drugs triggered a psychotic episode.
Eleven of the 12 jurors concluded there was sufficient evidence to find Clancy not guilty of murder or manslaughter by reason of insanity. The sole holdout, however, refused to acquit the former labor and delivery nurse, leading Judge Sullivan to declare a mistrial.
The judge in the Lindsay Clancy trial has ordered that the jurors’ names remain sealed indefinitely
Judge William Sullivan cited concerns over juror privacy in his Friday order
After the mistrial, several jurors said the unidentified holdout “would not interact with us and try to understand.”
“He had reasonable doubt. He admitted he had reasonable doubt,” jury foreperson Roni Carlson told NBC Boston.
“I started filling out the forms, I was so excited. There were three forms I had to fill out, and then he said, ‘But I’m still not going to say she’s not guilty.’”
Another juror, 25-year-old Nick Dargie, said the holdout used an exercise band and a water bottle to demonstrate how Clancy’s children—five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson and eight-month-old Callan—died.
Paula Devlin, 65, also told Our News Outlet that the man’s concerns focused on the amount of blood discovered in the bedroom of the Clancy family’s upscale home in Duxbury, a Boston suburb, shortly after Lindsay used exercise bands to kill her three children.
As questions then swirled about the holdout juror, it was revealed that he faced domestic violence allegations and had an active restraining order against him while he was sitting through the explosive five-and-a-half week trial.
The man’s 13-year-old nephew called 911 and alleged his uncle had grabbed his wife around the throat before throwing her into a dresser, NBC 10 reports.
The man’s mother was allegedly screaming, ‘You’re evil!’ as officers arrested him, according to the report.
The criminal charge was ultimately dismissed, and the couple later divorced.
His ex-wife told the station that she had not wanted to testify because she feared she could lose custody of her daughter.
But the juror allegedly became embroiled in another family confrontation years later.
Clancy has not denied that she killed her three children, but argued she should be found not guilty by reason of insanity as she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time
Cora, five; Dawson, three; and Callan, eight months, were found strangled to death at their home in Duxbury, Massachusetts on January 24, 2023
Last year, the same nephew who had called police during the 2021 episode obtained a restraining order against his uncle, according to NBC10.
In an affidavit, the teenager accused his uncle of knocking him to the ground and repeatedly punching him in the face.
The nephew claimed his uncle told him: ‘You ruined my f***ing life,’ in an apparent reference to his earlier decision to call police.
‘You’ve had this coming your way for a long time,’ the juror allegedly added, according to the affidavit quoted by NBC10.
The juror also allegedly ‘lied about everything’ when he moved into a rented home and now owes more than $12,000 in back rent, Our News Outlet reported.
Paula Devlin, 65, told Our News Outlet how the holdout juror focused on the amount of blood found in the bedroom
Jury foreperson Roni Carlson told NBC Boston last week the unidentified holdout admitted to having reasonable doubt
He moved into a two-bedroom unit in March but soon began skipping out on the $2,400-a-month rent, the landlord told Our News Outlet.
His landlord, who asked not to be named, said he initially tried to be understanding when the payments stopped.
‘He told me he was sorry, he was going through some stuff,’ the landlord said, revealing that he had only owned the property for a year.
But the situation allegedly deteriorated as the unpaid rent continued to mount.
When the landlord tried to chase him by phone on his unpaid rent, the two numbers he had for him were ‘disconnected,’ the landlord added.
He claimed the juror and his girlfriend erected cameras around the property in recent days and had tried to run away from him when he tried to confront them in person about their unpaid rent.
The landlord said he was forced to take the juror to court over the unpaid rent to regain access to his property, just before the Clancy trial started.
During deliberations, the landlord was awarded a default judgment of more than $12,000 in unpaid rent and plans to evict him, court records seen by Our News Outlet show.
According to his landlord, the juror is a church-going man from Haiti, who is in his 40s and works for a local pest control firm.
Neighbors have speculated the lone juror may have ‘gone into hiding’ after the intense interest in the Clancy trial.
