Inset: Lindsay Clancy appears with her full family. Background: Clancy and two of her children (Law&Crime).
The Massachusetts woman accused of strangling her three children to death before trying to kill herself appeared in court on Wednesday to discuss how she will be transported to her upcoming trial.
Lindsay Clancy, 35, is charged with three counts of murder for the January 2023 deaths of 5-year-old Cora Clancy, 3-year-old Dawson Clancy, and 8-month-old Callan Clancy.
With the defendant herself appearing via remote video, Clancy's defense argued she should be driven to court in an ambulance.
In earlier motions practice, the state argued the defendant could simply be transferred using a wheelchair and a sheriff's office van. The defense, however, took issue with that assessment because Clancy is severely paralyzed after jumping from a second-story window.
During the hearing, defense attorney Kevin Reddington took umbrage at the Plymouth County Sheriff's Office for its position — ridiculing its assessment of his client and the way in which the office discussed the state of affairs regarding transportation for her criminal case.
"Apparently the sheriff's health services administrator, and I quote, '…reached out to the medical team there and learned that Clancy is confined to a wheelchair, however, she can self-transfer and can provide self-care in virtually all aspects of a day trip like this to the courthouse.' A day trip like this to the courthouse."
The defendant remains hospitalized at Tewksbury State Hospital, a historic mental illness facility. She has not been incarcerated since the incident that took the lives of her three children and left her paralyzed — a sustained defense win for Reddington who years ago asked the court not to enter an "inhumane order" that his client be put in jail.
Lindsay Clancy appears in court via remote video on Jan. 7, 2026 (Law&Crime).
The defense attorney also took issue with the sheriff's office understanding of Clancy's medical condition in a motion obtained by Danbury, Connecticut-based newspaper The News-Times.
"Defense counsel has investigated this and it does not appear as though this is even close to the defendant's medical condition," the motion reads. "It is imperative that the court conduct a further hearing to allow the court to determine not only jurisdictional issues, but also the actual physical and emotional impact that a trial is going to have on this young woman."
On Wednesday, however, the sheriff's office took a less aggressive approach — framing its position as a concern about costs.
"If she requires an ambulance, I've spoken to our transportation officer about this," sheriff's office General Counsel Jessica Kenny said. "It's a much bigger ask. We would have to contract with a private ambulance company to provide that because we do not have an ambulance and Tewksbury does not have an ambulance. So there would be certainly a cost associated with that. There's also some logistics…the scheduling of an ambulance obviously can sometimes be a difficult thing given the nature of what ambulances are."
Still, the defense attorney pushed back, saying he had received conflicting information from the hospital and that, in any event, the sheriff's office's assessment of Clancy's health was entirely off-base.
Reddington went on, outraged and raising his voice, at length:
Trying not to get into embarrassing issues here. It's incredible, the medical care that is necessary for the duration of the trial and periodically during the day. This is where it's advised to the court that she requires a two-person female assist for these issues necessitates transfers to flat surfaces such as stretchers or exam tables. How the hell does she come up with telling you that she's able to ambulate, and self-transfer, and provide self-care in all aspects of the day trip like this to the courthouse when you have this letter that tells you the condition that this woman is in?
"She is not able to even use a handicap bathroom stall," the defense attorney continued. "She has to have extra supplies available. She has to have a nurse that's not a veterinarian that knows what the medical condition of the individual is and can provide help — not just some random person from the sheriff's department that's going to sit in a jump seat in the sheriff's van."
Reddington pressed for the court to conduct an additional hearing. He also said he wanted to know who at Tewksbury had provided the sheriff's office with the information it relied on, and demanded a copy of a HIPAA form signed by his client — although the attorney explicitly said he did not think such a form exists.
In the end, Superior Court Judge William F. Sullivan seemed more amenable than not to the idea Clancy might need an ambulance to attend her trial — but held off on ruling on the request for now.
"I'm not gonna deny it, I'm just not gonna act on it because we still may need more information as to who the individuals are that are going to be required to be present either in the van or the ambulance or here at the courthouse," the judge said. "I certainly think that that may be something that the defendant may want to go forward on. So, I'm not gonna deny that motion at this time."
Then, Reddington clarified the defense request.
"We don't, as I understand it, require an ambulance with all of the accouterments of an ambulance," the defense attorney said. "I think basically a van with the chair — you know able to transport the chair is sufficient. I know that Tewksbury has done that on a number of occasions with her, bringing her to various hospitals all over the place for various testings, and they use a van so I may have misspoken in the sense of an ambulance."
The court will take up the transportation issue again on Jan. 27.
Clancy's trial is slated to begin on July 20.
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