Tufts and Jollotta ask court to drop Clancy wrongful death claim

Lawyers for Dr. Jennifer Tufts and nurse practitioner Rebecca Jollotta asked a judge on Wednesday to dismiss a civil lawsuit filed by Patrick Clancy. The suit claims negligence in the care provided to his wife, Lindsay Clancy, in the months before she killed their three children in 2023. Patrick Clancy filed the wrongful death claim against the two providers and their employers, Aster Mental Health Inc. and South Shore Health System Inc. He alleges that adequate care would have likely kept the children alive.

Norfolk Superior Judge Michael Doolin heard arguments on the motion to dismiss. He took the matter under advisement rather than ruling immediately. The central legal issue is whether state law grants the providers immunity from liability. Defense attorneys argued that the state's duty to warn statute limits when mental health providers can be held responsible for a patient's actions.

Timothy Sweetland, who represents Jollotta and South Shore Health, stated there is no evidence Lindsay Clancy explicitly told her providers she intended to harm or kill her children. He noted that the duty to warn law allows liability only in limited circumstances, such as an explicit threat. He insisted that Clancy never made such a threat to Tufts or Jollotta. Mary Alys Azzarito, representing Tufts and Aster Mental Health, echoed this view. She argued the providers could not have foreseen the outcome of the killings.

Patrick Clancy's attorney, Howard Cooper, countered that the suit is primarily about medical malpractice and wrongful death rather than the duty to warn. Cooper told the court that Lindsay Clancy would testify that she explicitly shared her homicidal ideation with the defendants. He stated that she was worried about something awful happening to her kids. Cooper argued the deaths were foreseeable and not random.

The dispute over Clancy's testimony prompted a statement from Kevin Reddington, her defense attorney in the criminal case. Reddington wrote that Clancy never indicated she intended to testify in the civil lawsuit. He said she did not tell her healthcare providers she harbored homicidal ideation toward her children. He emphasized that Mr. Clancy's counsel does not speak for Lindsay Clancy.

Background context from the criminal trial supports the defense position. Both Tufts and Jollotta testified last summer that Clancy never mentioned thoughts of harming her children. Tufts began treating Clancy in September 2022 for postpartum issues. She prescribed multiple medications and assessed Clancy as depressed and anxious but not psychotic. Clancy reported intrusive thoughts about dying in October but denied suicidal or homicidal thoughts.

Jollotta had three in-person visits with Clancy between November and December 2022. She also communicated via phone and the hospital's patient portal. In the month before the killings, Clancy sent messages warning of intrusive thoughts about suicide and fear that new medications were causing them. Jollotta told jurors that such thoughts are common in postpartum depression. She adjusted the medications and explained that full clinical benefits typically take four to six weeks.

The civil case proceeds alongside the criminal proceedings. A mistrial was declared in September after jurors deadlocked in the trial for the 2023 murders. Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz has not yet decided whether to retry Clancy for first-degree murder. If charges are reduced to second-degree murder, Clancy could waive a jury trial and accept a judge's decision. Clancy is paralyzed from the waist down after a suicide attempt following the killings.