The judge overseeing the Lindsay Clancy murder trial has ordered that the names of the jurors be sealed indefinitely, after domestic violence accusations against the lone holdout juror came to light.
In an order filed on Friday, Judge William Sullivan cited concerns about juror privacy, noting that one person was arrested after trying to video record jurors 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.'"
He also concluded that "there is a risk of immediate and irreparable injury should the [jury] list be made available to the public at this time." Jurors remain free to identify themselves or speak publicly if they choose, after several came forward last week to describe what happened during the multi-day deliberations.
The trial and the mistrial
Clancy, 36, had admitted strangling her three children with exercise bands but argued in court that she was overmedicated while suffering from postpartum depression, and that the cocktail of drugs she was prescribed brought on a psychosis.
Eleven of the 12 jurors found there was enough evidence to acquit Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, of murder or manslaughter by reason of insanity. The lone holdout refused to acquit her, prompting Judge Sullivan to declare a mistrial.
Jurors describe the deliberations
Several jurors have since 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.'"
Juror Nick Dargie, 25, described how the holdout wrapped an exercise band around a water bottle to mimic how the Clancy children, Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, eight months, died. Juror Paula Devlin, 65, told the Daily Mail that the man's concerns centered on the amount of blood found in the bedroom of the Clancys' Duxbury home, where Lindsay used exercise bands to kill her three children.
Domestic violence allegations
As questions swirled about the holdout juror, it emerged that he faced domestic violence allegations and had an active restraining order against him while sitting through the five-and-a-half-week trial.
The man's 13-year-old nephew called 911 in 2021 and alleged his uncle had grabbed his wife around the throat before throwing her into a dresser, according to NBC 10. The man's mother was allegedly screaming, "You're evil!" as officers arrested him, the station reported.
The criminal charge was ultimately dismissed, and the couple later divorced. The juror's ex-wife told the station she had not wanted to testify at the time because she feared losing custody of her daughter.
A second confrontation and unpaid rent
Last year, the same nephew who had called police in 2021 obtained a restraining order against his uncle, according to NBC 10. 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," an apparent reference to the earlier 911 call, and allegedly added, "You've had this coming your way for a long time," according to the affidavit cited by NBC 10.
The juror also allegedly "lied about everything" when he moved into a rented home and now owes more than $12,000 in back rent, the Daily Mail reported.
He moved into a two-bedroom unit in March but soon began skipping out on the $2,400-a-month rent, according to his landlord, who asked not to be named and said he had owned the property for only a year.
"He told me he was sorry, he was going through some stuff," the landlord said, describing an initial attempt to be understanding. The situation deteriorated as unpaid rent mounted, and when the landlord tried to reach him by phone, both numbers on file were disconnected.
The landlord claimed the juror and his girlfriend had erected cameras around the property in recent days and tried to run away from him when he attempted to confront them in person over the unpaid rent.
The landlord said he was forced to take the juror to court to regain access to the property, just before the Clancy trial began. During deliberations, he was awarded a default judgment of more than $12,000 in unpaid rent and now plans to evict the juror, according to court records seen by the Daily Mail.
According to the landlord, the juror is a church-going man from Haiti in his 40s who works for a local pest control company. Neighbors have speculated that he may have "gone into hiding" amid the intense interest in the Clancy trial.
