Judge OKs ‘medical expert’ for ex-CT mom charged in kids’ deaths

A judge approved the defense’s motion allowing a medical expert to see Lindsay Clancy, the former Wallingford woman accused of killing her three children in Massachusetts during an emergency hearing Friday, court officials and Clancy’s attorney said.

“We had a pretty powerful presentation to the judge,” which “the government opposed,” said Clancy’s lawyer, Kevin J. Reddington of Brockton, Mass., after the hearing. “I argued that she has the Constitutional right”to effective representation of counsel” and “effective medical expert assistance,” including “evaluation by a qualified forensic psychologist.”

Currently, authorities “will not allow any contact with anyone other than counsel and medical staff” — and even her parents, who came from Connecticut, were not allowed in, Reddington said in his 15page motion. In fact, they were not even allowed to speak to her by telephone, the motion states.

In both the motion and an interview, he took issue with Duxbury Chief of Police Michael Carbone’s suggestion to Hearst Connecticut Media, among others, that Clancy is improving daily “and has spoken to family and friends.”

Reddington, in an email to Hearst Connecticut Media Group, called Carbone “a blatant, unconscionable liar” and said that is not the case.

The judge “agreed and allowed my motion that the doctor may enter my hospital to evaluate her,” Reddington said. Guards, who are stationed at Clancy’s hospital room “can stand outside and look through glass but can’t go in or listen,” he said.

Notes that the court wrote on the motion state that the doctor may not bring any weapons into the hospital.

The ruling allows the medical expert, identified in Reddington’s motion as Dr. Paul Zeizel of Newton Centre, Mass., to stage a visitation with certain conditions with Lindsay Clancy who has been hospitalized with injuries she suffered after jumping out of a window following the death of children who were found unresponsive by her husband, officials said.

The extent of Clancy’s injuries have not been released.

She will be arraigned at 2 p.m. Tuesday in Plymouth District Court, according to Beth Stone, a spokesperson for the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office.

“The defendant will appear via Zoom from the hospital and counsel will be in-person at the courthouse,” Stone said.

“I don’t have her current condition,” Duxbury Chief of Police Carbone wrote in an email to Hearst Connecticut Media Group earlier this week. “She is, however, improving daily and has spoken to family and friends.”

Clancy grew up in Wallingford where her parents, Paula and Mike Musgrove, still live. She graduated from Lyman Hall High School in Wallingford and Quinnipiac University, school officials confirmed. Neighbors said they are heartbroken about the deaths of her children.

The 32-year-old mother who was living with her husband Patrick and their

three children in Duxbury, Mass., survived jumping out of a window in an apparent suicide attempt after the killings Jan. 24, police said.

She was hospitalized after she was taken into custody and is facing murder and strangulation charges in connection with the deaths of daughter Cora Clancy, 5, son Dawson Clancy, 3, and her 8-monthold baby boy Callan who was flown to Boston Children’s Hospital where he died three days later.

Clancy was likely suffering from postpartum psychosis — an intense mental illness — when she strangled her three children to death before attempting suicide, according to a Massachusetts psychology expert.

Mental health issues, especially in new mothers are often misunderstood and under-diagnosed, said Abbie Goldberg, clinical psychologist and psychology professor at Clark University in Worcester, Mass.

“Postpartum psychosis is real and may not manifest for weeks or months after the family brings home a baby,” Goldberg said. “It is essential that we as a society become more knowledgeable about these conditions and signs that someone may be suffering.”

Goldberg, who is an expert in postpartum, mental illness and maternal familicide, believes based on her understanding of the case that Clancy was suffering from postpartum psychosis.

Her husband Patrick posted an emotional note online, forgiving his wife who he said suffered from a condition, which he did not name, that “rapidly worsened.”

“I want to ask all of you that you find it deep within yourselves to forgive Lindsay, as I have,” he posted Saturday on the GoFundMe page started to help him recover. As of Friday afternoon, the page had raised more than $1.015 million, having exceeded its $1 million goal.