Commonwealth v. Clancy

 2383CR00198 · Plymouth Superior

Commonwealth v. Clancy, August 11, 2026

TuesdayreportedcommonwealthDay 11 of 28

A near-single-witness day, and the fullest account the jury has had of the seven weeks of psychiatric care before January 24.

The perinatal nurse practitioner who took over Clancy's care in late November told the jury she saw no mania and no psychosis, that Clancy never disclosed a plan or a thought of harming her children, and that she had no concern about postpartum psychosis — and, on cross, conceded she never spoke to the treating psychiatrist, never learned why a Rhode Island program would not take Clancy, and never followed up after Clancy was admitted to a locked ward at McLean.

The day opened with an unresolved argument over adding a former McLean social worker as a defense witness.

Key points
  • WHAT CUTS AGAINST THE COMMONWEALTH, FROM ITS OWN WITNESS. Jollotta was called by the prosecution, and the most damaging material of the day came out of her on cross. She never spoke to Dr. Jennifer Tufts, the psychiatrist prescribing for Clancy at the same time, and never obtained her records; she did not know about a hydroxyzine prescription Tufts wrote on October 26; she did not know what Women and Infants Hospital had concluded about Clancy, or that its stated concern was over-medication; she made no inquiry after Clancy was admitted to a locked ward at McLean in early January and never asked for a release to get those records, agreeing with Reddington that knowing the diagnosis would have mattered. She also agreed that not sleeping while not feeling tired is a symptom of mania that clinicians look for. Boston Globe, Boston 25, East Idaho News.
  • AND WHAT CUTS AGAINST THE DEFENSE, FROM THE SAME WITNESS. Jollotta told the jury she screened for mania and psychosis at each contact and saw neither; that Clancy's speech was normal and her thought process linear and goal-directed; that Clancy screened negative for mania on the mood disorder questionnaire and did not meet the diagnostic criteria for bipolar disorder at the time; that Clancy never disclosed hallucinations, voices, delusions, or any thought of harming her children; and, on redirect, that she never had a concern that Clancy was suffering from postpartum psychosis. Boston Globe, CBS Boston, East Idaho News, boston.com.
  • THE BIPOLAR QUESTION CAME FROM A COMMONWEALTH WITNESS, NOT THE DEFENSE. Jollotta raised an underlying bipolar disorder herself at the December 6 in-person visit — on an activating response to sertraline, forty-eight hours without sleep, and difficulty tolerating antidepressants — and kept it in view afterward, choosing quetiapine partly because it treats bipolar illness and, by December 16, describing the target dose as one for bipolar depression. Boston 25 reports her suspecting a mixed manic or hypomanic state. That is the diagnosis the defense's criminal responsibility opinion rests on, and it was raised in December 2022 by a treating clinician the Commonwealth called. It also cuts the other way: she testified the screening was negative and the criteria were not met. See the bipolar-diagnosis thread in the evidence file.
  • PATRICK CLANCY REJECTED THE BIPOLAR SUGGESTION IN THE ROOM. At the December 6 appointment, with Patrick Clancy present, Jollotta raised the possibility of an underlying bipolar disorder and he told her his wife was not bipolar. Reported by the Boston Globe, Boston 25, CBS Boston, East Idaho News and boston.com. The Globe and East Idaho News add that Clancy herself said nothing; boston.com renders Jollotta as saying Clancy looked at her without speaking.
  • THREE CONTACTS, AND NOTHING AFTER DECEMBER 21. Jollotta saw Clancy three times in total — telehealth on November 29, in person on December 6, telehealth on December 13 — against fourteen appointments with Dr. Tufts between late September and January. The Boston Globe puts the total at seventeen provider contacts across four months. Her last communication with Clancy was December 21, 2022 and her last prescription December 22; she had no contact at all in January, and Clancy never came back to the clinic. That places the whole of her evidence more than a month before January 24.
  • THE EDINBURGH SCORES: THREE OF THEM, NOT TWO. A score of 23 was recorded several days before Clancy's first contact with Jollotta (severe range), 17 at the November 29 telehealth visit, and 21 at the December 6 in-person visit. The Boston Globe and East Idaho News both carry all three; East Idaho News gives the second score as coming six days after the first. This page previously recorded only 23 and 17. Above 13 on the Edinburgh scale indicates probable depression. East Idaho News also reports anxiety screening at both visits but renders the instrument inconsistently — 14 of 21 on November 29 and 19 of 30 on December 6 — so the anxiety numbers should not be read as a single scale.
  • A DEFENSE WITNESS WAS ARGUED OVER AND NOT RULED ON. The day opened with the defense moving to call Emily Thorndike, a clinical social worker formerly at McLean Hospital who had posted a TikTok video contesting how the hospital had been described at this trial. Reddington wanted her on holiday staffing; Buckingham opposed on the ground that the records show what was offered, that Thorndike left McLean about a year before Clancy's admission, and that she had publicly called the prosecution an abomination. Judge Sullivan took it under advisement and signaled a voir dire. He did not rule on August 11. Reporting from later in the trial indicates the motion was ultimately denied; that did not happen on this date and is not recorded here as an August 11 ruling.
  • TWO WITHDRAWN QUESTIONS, AND ONE OVERRULED OBJECTION. (1) On cross, Reddington asked whether Jollotta was effectively the only provider who had considered a bipolar spectrum disorder; Boston 25 reports the Commonwealth objecting and the Boston Globe reports the characterization withdrawn. (2) On redirect, after Jollotta answered that she had never had a concern about postpartum psychosis, Reddington remarked that it appeared she had been suffering from it; the Commonwealth objected and he withdrew it and ended his questioning. CBS Boston and boston.com. (3) The Commonwealth objected when Reddington asked whether Patrick Clancy had been angry about the medications rather than merely concerned, and Judge Sullivan overruled it. Boston 25 and boston.com. East Idaho News also records an objection overruled during the direct, on the December 13 visit, without reporting the question.
  • THE OVER-MEDICATION THREAD GOT ITS CLEAREST AIRING YET. Reddington put to Jollotta that Women and Infants Hospital in Rhode Island did not take Clancy into its postpartum program because of concern she had been over-medicated, and that its diagnosis was depression due to adverse drug effects, with a recommendation to taper the quetiapine. Jollotta said she was not part of that assessment and could not speak to their diagnosis. He put it to her that a doctor there had called her and had not been called back; she answered that no call from Women and Infants ever reached her and that she would certainly have returned one. Reported by the Boston Globe, Boston 25, East Idaho News, ABC News, boston.com and turnto10. See the over-medication thread in the evidence file.
  • SHE WAS TRYING TO GET OFF MEDICATIONS, NOT ONTO THEM. boston.com reports Reddington establishing that Clancy was attempting to reduce her medications rather than seek them out — that is, the opposite of drug-seeking. It sits directly against the Commonwealth's over-medication framing and against the Globe's summary of the direct, which lists Clancy's history of discontinuing prescriptions early as a prosecution point. Both are accounts of the same conduct read in opposite directions, and they are recorded that way.
  • THE CRISIS LINE TURNED HER AWAY. Reddington read from a December 5 note by the social worker Latisha Dukes recording that Clancy had contacted Aspire, a round-the-clock crisis service, and been told she did not meet the criteria for inpatient treatment because she had no suicide plan. The Boston Globe carries the clinician's reported remark in blunt terms about how severe a case would have to be to qualify. Boston 25 reports Dukes's note as recording two calls to Aspire without help. Jollotta answered that she could not speak to what Aspire had told her. This corroborates the two turned-away hotline calls Dr. Tufts was asked about on August 10.
  • WHAT SHE NEVER HEARD. Across every contact, Jollotta testified, Clancy never articulated a plan or an intent to kill herself, never described a plan to harm anyone else, and never mentioned any thought of harming her children. She described intrusive thoughts, which Jollotta told the jury are fairly common in postpartum depression and anxiety, and which Clancy explained as thoughts of not wanting to be alive. Jollotta explained her threshold for acting: a stated plan and means would have led her to section the patient, whereas thoughts of suicide without plan or intent, with the husband aware, were managed as immediate-safety assessment. Boston Globe, Boston 25, CBS Boston, East Idaho News.
  • NEW NAMES AND SPELLINGS. The social worker is spelled Latisha Dukes by the Boston Globe in one entry, Lateisha Dukes by the Globe in another, and Latiesha Dukes by East Idaho News. Aspire Crisis Support is named for the first time on this page. The witness's own surname is given as Jollotta by most outlets and Jollatta by East Idaho News's summary text.
  • WITNESS NUMBERING. CBS Boston calls Julie Paul the sixty-first witness of the trial; East Idaho News calls Rebecca Jollotta Commonwealth witness number 62. The two are consistent with each other and are the only witness counts reported on this date.
  • THIS WITNESS IS A DEFENDANT IN THE RELATED CIVIL SUITS. The Patriot Ledger's live blog notes that both Lindsay and Patrick Clancy sued Jollotta in January 2026. That is corroborated by reporting on the civil filings — Patrick Clancy's wrongful death and malpractice suit of January 20, 2026 and Lindsay Clancy's own malpractice suit two days later both name Dr. Jennifer Tufts, Rebecca Jollotta and their employers. NO OUTLET REPORTS THE JURY BEING TOLD THIS, and no outlet reports the civil suits being raised in cross-examination on this date. Recorded as background bearing on the witness's interest, not as evidence in the case.
  • CONFLICT WITH THIS FILE'S OWN AUGUST 12 ENTRY. Every outlet covering August 11 has Jollotta finishing her evidence and stepping down on this date, after redirect, before the jury was sent home. The August 12 entry in this file also lists her as a witness that day. Logged in the evidence file as jollotta-testimony-end; not resolved here, and the August 12 entry has not been touched.
  • WHO CONDUCTED THE DIRECT. The Boston Globe names ADA Shanan Buckingham as conducting both the direct and the redirect of Jollotta, and the Patriot Ledger's live blog also has Buckingham calling her. CBS Boston instead names ADA Jennifer Sprague as the prosecutor on the direct. Three-to-one for Buckingham, recorded that way, with CBS Boston's account noted rather than discarded.
  • OUTLETS DISAGREE ON WHEN THE DAY ENDED. Boston 25's live blog marks the adjournment at 15:34, boston.com at about 15:40, East Idaho News at 15:42 with the judge excusing the jury until 09:00, and the Boston Globe puts it just before 15:45. CBS Boston says court adjourned at about 16:00, which is out of line with the other four. Boston 25's afternoon clock runs roughly ten to seventeen minutes ahead of the Globe's posting times throughout, so the spread is largely a difference in how each blog stamps its entries.
  • TWO ACCOUNTS COULD NOT BE READ IN FULL. CNN's August 11 story and NBC Boston's day-11 live blog are listed as sources so a reader can try them directly. No fact on this page rests on either, beyond CNN's headline and summary, which report Jollotta saying Clancy repeatedly asked to change her medications.
  • The medications canvassed across the day, by their trade and generic names as the outlets gave them: sertraline (Zoloft), trazodone, mirtazapine (Remeron), fluoxetine (Prozac), quetiapine (Seroquel), lorazepam (Ativan), diazepam (Valium), clonazepam (Klonopin), zolpidem (Ambien), lamotrigine (Lamictal), hydroxyzine, diphenhydramine (Benadryl) and melatonin. The Boston Globe reports that Clancy was prescribed thirteen psychiatric medications by multiple providers in the four months before the children's deaths.

Witnesses (2)

Julie PaulCommonwealth
Psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner and certified nurse-midwife; ran South Shore Health's perinatal behavioral health program, which the Boston Globe dates to 2018. She had left the practice by the time of trial; East Idaho News reports she had transferred to New Hampshire and was still working in postpartum care.
Direct: Given on August 10, 2026; not resumed on this date Cross: Reddington
  • TESTIMONY COMPLETE, AND VERY SHORT ON THIS DATE. She had testified on direct on the afternoon of August 10 and returned first thing on August 11 for cross-examination. CBS Boston reports the cross lasting about a minute before she stepped down; the Boston Globe timestamps her stepping down at about 09:48 and East Idaho News has her taking the stand at about 09:42. CBS Boston identifies her as the sixty-first witness of the trial.
  • The only substance the outlets report from the cross: Reddington asked how she had come to treat Clancy, and she said the connection was made through a mutual acquaintance of hers and of Patrick Clancy's mother. East Idaho News and the Boston Globe. That is consistent with this file's August 10 entry, which records the referral as coming through Susan Clancy.
  • East Idaho News reports that South Shore Health records were admitted at this point and that Reddington had no further questions.
  • The Boston Globe published a background explainer on Paul the same morning, at about 08:45, listing prescriptions it attributes to her: fluoxetine at 10mg on November 21, and zolpidem at 5mg, mirtazapine at 5mg and clonazepam at 0.5mg on November 25, with a note that Clancy verbally confirmed she understood the instructions and was also receiving talk therapy. That is the Globe's own summary of her earlier evidence, not testimony given on August 11, and is recorded here as such.
  • CBS Boston summarizes her August 10 direct as testimony that she prescribed psychiatric drugs to Clancy and that Clancy never mentioned any thought of killing herself or her children.
Rebecca JollottaCommonwealth
Psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner at South Shore Health's perinatal behavioral health clinic in Weymouth, where she had worked since May 2021 and is certified in perinatal mental health. The Boston Globe reports a bachelor's degree in health sciences from the University of Connecticut, a master's in counseling psychology from William James College, nurse practitioner training at the MGH Institute of Health Professions, work as a nurse at McLean Hospital in 2019-2020, and a graduate course she teaches at Simmons University on psychiatric diagnosis and management. East Idaho News gives her as Commonwealth witness number 62; its summary text spells the surname Jollatta.
Direct: Buckingham (CBS Boston instead names Sprague) Cross: Reddington
  • TESTIMONY COMPLETE ON THIS DATE. Called at about 09:49, direct until about 13:00, lunch, cross from about 14:12 to about 15:24, redirect to about 15:32, and she stepped down before the jury was sent home. Boston 25's live blog labels the final examination a recross; the Boston Globe and East Idaho News both call it a redirect by the Commonwealth, and the sequence supports redirect. No outlet reports any further defense questioning after it.
  • Her practice. She works in a program treating postpartum women up to two years after delivery. Over roughly five years she has treated about five women with postpartum psychosis and hundreds with postpartum depression and anxiety. Boston Globe, East Idaho News, Boston 25.
  • How she came to have the case. Clancy was transferred to her when Julie Paul left South Shore Health. Paul had done the intake interview; Jollotta had access to the South Shore records and knew the medication history.
  • THE WHOLE OF HER CONTACT: three appointments and a stream of portal messages. Telehealth on November 29, 2022, about thirty minutes; in person on December 6 with Patrick Clancy present; telehealth on December 13. Her last communication of any kind with Clancy was December 21 and her last prescription December 22. There was no contact in January and Clancy never returned to the clinic. Boston Globe, Boston 25, East Idaho News.
  • November 29, the first contact. Clancy reported interrupted sleep and needing lorazepam to get back to sleep, and had been on trazodone after an emergency room visit earlier in the month; Jollotta noted weight loss. Screening: Edinburgh 17 of 30, and an anxiety score East Idaho News gives as 14 of 21, moderate to severe. Clancy denied suicidal and homicidal thoughts, appeared anxious, and her thought process was linear and goal-directed. Jollotta screened for mania and psychosis and, asked directly by the prosecutor, said Clancy showed no psychotic symptoms. Plan: continue mirtazapine and lorazepam as needed, no new medication, and therapy, mindfulness, physical activity and meditation. Jollotta explained that these medications generally take four to six weeks to work. Clancy declined zolpidem and hydroxyzine when they were offered.
  • November 30. Clancy asked whether it was safe to stop mirtazapine after five nights, reported worsening depression and about two hours of sleep. Jollotta asked directly about suicide; Clancy denied being suicidal, saying she was not at that point, but told her she could not go on as she was and asked for quetiapine. The Boston Globe reports her describing hopelessness and a lack of motivation. Jollotta proposed continuing mirtazapine another ten days, starting fluoxetine, and adding quetiapine for sleep, and a clinic nurse called that afternoon to confirm the plan.
  • December 1 to 3, the intrusive thoughts. Clancy wrote that she could not take mirtazapine and was having intrusive thoughts; Jollotta sent a long message explaining the signs of postpartum depression and anxiety, telling her intrusive thoughts are common after childbirth, and pressing her to give the medication a proper trial. Clancy wrote that she was frightened of the medications and apologized for the number of portal messages. She wrote that she would try anything, and attributed her depression to dependence on lorazepam, which Jollotta did not accept, sending her an explanation of the difference between dependence and addiction. THE OUTLETS DISAGREE ON DATES HERE: East Idaho News places the message about horrible intrusive thoughts resolving after a dose of lorazepam on December 2, while Boston 25 and the Boston Globe place that exchange on December 3. Neither is a rounding of the other and both are recorded.
  • The message that gave two outlets their headline. Clancy wrote that she felt numb, that she felt as though she were going to die and did not care, and asked what to do about it. The Boston Globe places it on December 2 and reports Jollotta not reading it as suicidal ideation but sending crisis resources; CBS Boston places it on December 1 and reports Jollotta identifying it as anhedonia, a loss of the capacity for pleasure, and not recommending an immediate emergency room visit. ABC News carries the same message and a second one about how frightening and stressful it was to be starting new medications. The date is not agreed and is left unresolved.
  • December 5, which came in only through the defense. A note by the social worker Latisha Dukes recorded that Clancy had contacted the Aspire crisis service and been told she did not meet the criteria for inpatient care because she had no suicide plan, and that Patrick Clancy had joined the therapy session and said his wife's anxiety was vastly worse since the medications began. Jollotta was out sick that day and testified she could not speak to what Aspire had told Clancy. Boston Globe, Boston 25, East Idaho News.
  • December 6, the only in-person visit, and the bipolar conversation. Screening at this visit: Edinburgh 21 of 30, moderate to severe, and an anxiety score East Idaho News gives as 19 of 30. Jollotta observed nothing abnormal in Clancy's speech, described her mood and affect as anxious and her thinking as linear and goal-directed, and recorded no hallucinations, no delusions, no suicide plan or intent, no mania, no psychosis and no obsessive thoughts or behaviors. Clancy reported not having slept for forty-eight hours and not feeling tired. Jollotta raised the possibility of an underlying bipolar disorder with Clancy and Patrick Clancy, citing an activating response to sertraline and difficulty tolerating antidepressants. She reviewed a mood disorder questionnaire Clancy had completed and recalled three symptoms: racing thoughts, trouble concentrating and insomnia. Asked by the prosecutor, she said the screening was negative for mania and that Clancy did not meet the diagnostic criteria for bipolar disorder at that time. Patrick Clancy said his wife was not bipolar; the Boston Globe and East Idaho News report that Clancy herself said nothing.
  • December 6, the benzodiazepine question. Jollotta ran a CIWA withdrawal assessment for lorazepam dependence and Clancy scored low, indicating anxiety without physical withdrawal. She proposed a taper using diazepam to avoid rebound anxiety. Clancy said quetiapine left her feeling weighed down while her mind stayed awake, and she and Patrick Clancy preferred fluoxetine; Jollotta agreed she could come off quetiapine to start fluoxetine, telling the jury she still had bipolar disorder in the back of her mind. Boston 25 reports her testifying that she wanted Clancy to see she was taking the concern seriously.
  • December 7 to 9, the direction reverses. Clancy wrote that the night had gone badly and she had slept about two hours; Boston 25 and CBS Boston report her saying she had taken what she had, including diphenhydramine, out of desperation and needed help. Jollotta recommended raising the quetiapine dose, telling the jury she kept the bipolar suspicion in view because quetiapine treats bipolar symptoms, and treated not sleeping without feeling tired as a possible sign of mania. On December 8 Clancy reported sleeping well on diazepam and quetiapine and asked for a slower taper; Jollotta was hesitant, given the long half-life of diazepam, but agreed to continue it until the December 13 visit. A telephone call on December 9 involving Patrick Clancy is reported by the Boston Globe as confirming acute symptoms and leading to a recommendation of the Women and Infants program.
  • THE QUETIAPINE DOSES ARE NOT AGREED ACROSS OUTLETS. East Idaho News reports an increase from 75mg toward 100mg on December 7, a titration plan reaching 400mg by the fourth day, Clancy at 200mg and 2.5mg of diazepam by December 12, and a recommendation of 300mg on December 16 for bipolar depression. Boston 25 reports a recommended increase of 100mg a day. The Patriot Ledger reports an increase to 400mg on December 9. The Boston Globe reports the December 16 increase as being to a dose that treats depression. The direction of travel is agreed; the numbers are not, and none of them should be quoted from this page as the dose she gave.
  • December 12 and 13, and the partial hospitalization recommendation. Clancy took less quetiapine than prescribed and told a clinic nurse she wanted off all medications. Jollotta warned her of the risks and, in her own words to the jury, strongly recommended a partial hospitalization program for postpartum depression. She reported fluctuating heart rate, which Jollotta described as usually benign on starting the medication. At the December 13 telehealth visit Clancy reported seven to nine hours of sleep on 200mg of quetiapine and 2.5mg of diazepam but was still depressed, numb and hopeless, with a racing heartbeat. Jollotta observed no mania, no psychosis and no suicidal ideation at that visit, noted self-harm thoughts recorded in the week but not at the visit, and repeated the partial hospitalization recommendation. Asked what the intrusive thoughts were, she told the jury they were thoughts of wanting to die. East Idaho News records an objection overruled during this passage without reporting the question. Jollotta had wanted this visit in person because of the severity of the symptoms; Clancy asked for it to be virtual.
  • December 15 to 16, the worst day. Patrick and Lindsay Clancy called Jollotta together and described it as the worst day yet, with persistent intrusive suicidal thoughts but no plan and no intent to act. Jollotta recommended going to the Massachusetts General Hospital emergency department as the best route to an inpatient bed. Clancy went, but chose to stay outpatient and to enter the partial program at Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island. She asked Jollotta what to do about medication; Jollotta raised the quetiapine dose and continued diazepam. Clancy reported that her previous psychiatrist had recommended adding lamotrigine as a mood stabilizer; Jollotta agreed it was a good idea, warned about the risk of a serious rash and the need for slow titration, and said it works well with quetiapine.
  • December 19 to 21, the last of it. Clancy said she was starting the Women and Infants program the next day and asked for a diazepam refill because Jollotta would be away; the refill was given. On December 20 Clancy reported that she had been discharged from Women and Infants and that its staff had recommended coming off quetiapine, and said she wanted to taper. Jollotta was concerned about the discharge, thought Clancy needed group therapy and further treatment, was uneasy about a taper she would not be present for, and asked whether Clancy could consult her psychiatrist. On December 21 Clancy said Women and Infants had recommended a more general partial hospitalization program such as McLean; Jollotta sent tapering instructions, dialectical behavior therapy group information and other resources, and had her clinic nurse call to go over the risks of tapering. That was her last contact. Boston Globe, Boston 25, East Idaho News.
  • December 30, after her last contact. Patrick Clancy telephoned South Shore Health wanting a bed for his wife at McLean and asking about a bed he had been offered previously, to avoid a wait in an emergency department; Jollotta's evidence was that the advice given was to go to the Massachusetts General emergency department as the better route to a bed. Boston 25 and East Idaho News. Jollotta later noticed prescriptions filled by Dr. Tufts and testified that Clancy never returned to the clinic.
  • HER OVERALL CHARACTERIZATION OF THE PATIENT, ON DIRECT. Clancy was engaged and collaborative about her treatment, thought clearly and in a linear way, advocated effectively for herself, was knowledgeable about her medications, and was honest and forthright about her symptoms. She never indicated any plan to harm herself or anyone else, and never mentioned a thought of harming her children. Boston Globe, boston.com, East Idaho News.
  • THE COMMONWEALTH'S FIVE POINTS FROM THE DIRECT, as the Boston Globe itself summarized them at about 14:50: that Jollotta repeatedly raised bipolar disorder while Clancy did not have enough symptoms for the diagnosis; that Patrick Clancy disagreed with the bipolar assessment; that Clancy was highly anxious about medications, believed they were causing her symptoms, and feared benzodiazepine addiction; that she had a pattern of stopping prescriptions early, including asking to stop mirtazapine after five nights; and that by December 2022 Jollotta was strongly recommending partial hospitalization while Clancy wanted off medication altogether.
  • CROSS - THE CARE COORDINATION FAILURE. Jollotta agreed she never spoke to Dr. Jennifer Tufts, never accessed Tufts's records, and did not know Tufts had prescribed hydroxyzine on October 26. Clancy saw Tufts fourteen times between late September and January and Jollotta three times; the Boston Globe puts the combined total at seventeen provider contacts in four months. BOSTON 25 RENDERS THIS DIFFERENTLY, reporting Reddington as saying Clancy saw Tufts seventeen times, which appears to be the combined figure attached to the wrong provider; the Boston Globe, CNN and East Idaho News all give fourteen for Tufts. Jollotta did know Tufts was prescribing sertraline, lorazepam and other drugs and said she had no difficulty reviewing the concurrent medication list.
  • CROSS - WOMEN AND INFANTS. Reddington put it to her that Women and Infants would not take Clancy into its postpartum program because of concern that she had been over-medicated, and that its diagnosis was depression due to adverse drug effects with a recommendation to taper quetiapine. Jollotta said she had not been part of that assessment, did not know the diagnosis, and could not comment on it. Asked whether she cared why, she said she did. Reddington put it to her that a doctor there had tried to reach her about the medication and never got a call back; she answered that no call from Women and Infants ever came to her and that she would certainly have returned one. She confirmed she never contacted Women and Infants herself after making the referral. Boston Globe, Boston 25, East Idaho News, ABC News, boston.com, turnto10.
  • CROSS - MCLEAN, AND THE RECORDS SHE NEVER SOUGHT. Reddington pressed her on what she did after Clancy was voluntarily admitted to a locked psychiatric ward at McLean in early January 2023, putting to her that a clinician treating this patient would want to know the diagnosis and the treatment. Jollotta agreed it was important. She did not have access to the McLean records, did not find out the diagnosis, was not sure whether Clancy had signed a release allowing McLean to speak to the clinic, and confirmed that she never asked her to sign one and never requested a call from McLean. Boston Globe, Boston 25, East Idaho News.
  • CROSS - THE MANIA INDICATORS SHE DID NOT KNOW ABOUT. Reddington asked whether she knew Clancy had run a 5K road race soon after giving birth, putting it as possible manic behavior; Jollotta did not know, and said it would have been something she would have considered. THE OUTLETS DIFFER ON WHICH BIRTH: the Boston Globe says within weeks of the birth of her second child, and the Patriot Ledger says after Callan's birth in May 2022 and against her husband's wishes. He asked whether she knew Clancy had been searching her medications online repeatedly at night - boston.com gives the range Reddington used as sixty, seventy, a hundred times a night, and Boston 25 gives about a hundred - and she did not. He asked whether she knew Clancy had stopped driving; she did not. On not sleeping without feeling tired, she agreed it is a symptom of mania that clinicians look for and said she had factored it in.
  • CROSS - THE BIPOLAR QUESTION THAT DREW AN OBJECTION. Reddington put to Jollotta that she was effectively the only provider who had considered a bipolar spectrum disorder. Boston 25 reports the Commonwealth objecting; the Boston Globe reports that he withdrew the characterization after she hesitated. Neither outlet reports a ruling on the objection.
  • CROSS - PATRICK CLANCY'S ALARM. Reddington asked whether Patrick Clancy had been merely concerned about the medications or angry about what they were doing to his wife; the Commonwealth objected and Judge Sullivan overruled the objection. Jollotta answered that he was concerned. Boston 25 and boston.com. CBS Boston reports a further line, that Reddington asked whether Patrick Clancy had said the drugs were turning his wife into a zombie, and that Jollotta did not recall that conversation but agreed he was concerned; the Patriot Ledger carries the same characterization. East Idaho News reports Reddington quoting the therapist's note that Patrick Clancy described the anxiety as vastly worse since the medications started, and Jollotta saying she did not recall the exact phrase but that he was concerned, and that on that day they collaborated on taking her off medications.
  • CROSS - THE MOOD CHART AND THE NURSE'S NOTES. Reddington showed a mood chart; Jollotta testified she had printed it but did not recall Clancy showing it to her. He put to her notes from a nurse visit recording that the medications were constantly being changed, and she said that sounded familiar. He read from Latisha Dukes's notes recording weight loss, heart palpitations and medications Clancy did not want to be on, and Jollotta confirmed she had read them. Boston 25.
  • CROSS - THE OUT-OF-BODY NOTE. Boston 25 reports Reddington asking whether Jollotta had reviewed a nurse's note recording that Clancy felt disconnected and out of her body; Jollotta confirmed she had and said she would have explored it further. The Boston Globe reports the same territory as Clancy reporting panic symptoms, disorientation, forgetfulness and feeling disconnected from her body. This is the closest the day's evidence comes to a dissociative symptom in a contemporaneous clinical record, and it went to a Commonwealth witness on cross.
  • CROSS - WHAT SHE TOLD CLANCY IT WAS. Asked about the December message describing horrible intrusive thoughts and deep depression, Jollotta said she had written back that this sounded like postpartum depression. She testified that of the five postpartum psychosis patients she has treated, only some heard voices, and agreed that postpartum depression is broadly similar to other depression with the difference of a hormonal trigger after delivery. Boston 25, boston.com.
  • CROSS - THE TAPER, AND THE VACATION. Reddington asked whether she had told Clancy to tough it out rather than taper the diazepam while she was away; Jollotta said she had asked her to hold off so they could taper together. ABC News frames the same line as a challenge to her availability. Boston 25 and East Idaho News.
  • CROSS - SUICIDAL THOUGHTS ON THE RECORD. Jollotta confirmed that intrusive suicidal thoughts were documented on more than one occasion, including on the December 12 message in which Clancy reported sleeping better but being incredibly depressed and unmotivated, while she continued to assess Clancy as safe. Boston 25 and East Idaho News. She also confirmed that Clancy was still reporting postpartum symptoms after her sleep improved on quetiapine and diazepam.
  • CROSS - THE DEFENSE'S FRAMING OF THE MEDICATION HISTORY. boston.com reports Reddington establishing that Clancy was trying to reduce her medications rather than obtain them, expressly against any suggestion of drug-seeking. That reads the same conduct the Commonwealth used as evidence of non-compliance in the opposite direction.
  • REDIRECT, by Buckingham. She took Jollotta through a pharmacy prescription list to establish that Clancy was her patient at South Shore between about November 20 and December 13, that the last meeting was December 13 and the last prescription December 22, that no January prescription came from her, that a new prescription is normally written when a dose changes rather than added to the old one, and that a patient is expected to disregard the superseded prescription. Small quantities were dispensed at each change - East Idaho News lists one pill, then two, then eight on successive dates. She confirmed she gave instructions on how the medications were to be taken. She confirmed that South Shore had no inpatient program and that anything she knew about Women and Infants could only have come from Clancy or at Clancy's request, since the two were not affiliated. Boston Globe, Boston 25, East Idaho News.
  • REDIRECT - THE TWO ANSWERS THE COMMONWEALTH WANTED. Asked whether Clancy ever articulated a plan or an intent when she spoke of suicidal thoughts, Jollotta said she did not, and set out her threshold: a stated plan with means would have led her to section the patient, whereas thoughts of suicide without plan or intent, with the husband aware, called for an immediate-safety assessment. She confirmed intrusive thoughts are fairly common in postpartum depression and anxiety. Asked whether, given her experience treating postpartum psychosis, she ever had a concern that Clancy was suffering from it, she answered that she did not. Boston Globe, CBS Boston, East Idaho News, boston.com.
  • WHAT HAPPENED NEXT. CBS Boston and boston.com report that after that last answer Reddington remarked that it appeared she had been suffering from it; the Commonwealth objected and he withdrew the remark and ended his questioning. Jollotta then stepped down.
  • NOT REPORTED BY ANYONE. No outlet reports Jollotta being asked about January 24 or about anything after December 30, being shown any exhibit by number, or giving any opinion on criminal responsibility. She is a treating clinician, not an expert witness, and her evidence stops more than a month before the deaths.

Exhibits and evidence

Rulings and objections

Procedural

Sourcesglobe-day-11 b25-aug11 cbs-day-11 boston-0811 eastidaho-day-11 abc-jollotta ledger-day-11 turnto10-day-11 cnn-day-11 nbc-day-11
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