@meghannmcuniff: A woman who worked at the psychiatric facility where Lindsay Clancy went before she killed her three children won't testify in her criminal trial, a judge ruled today. Emily Thorndike testified for about 35 minutes outside the jury's presence in a voir dire hearing for Judge William F. Sullivan, who considered the testimony before deciding not to allow Clancy's attorney Kevin Reddington to call Thorndike as a witness in front of the jury. Reddington learned of Thorndike through a TikTok video she posted accusing prosecutors of lying about the conditions Clancy faced when she was McLean. She said she was "definitely emotional" when she recorded the video. "Tell the judge why were you emotional when you did that TikTok," Reddington said. "Well, it is a it's a lengthy TikTok. It's about 10 minutes, and I was emotional because I felt like what was discussed in court was not aligned with what my experience was. I noted several things. I'll try to summarize some of them," Thorndike said. "There was mention that there's individual therapy on the unit. There is not. There was mention of seeing a doctor every day. I felt like there was some misleading of that. You do see a doctor every day, but on the weekends and on a holiday, it's one doctor who's seeing all of the patients. The meetings can be as short as one minute. Some many patients decline those meetings. ... The doctor who's there on the weekend and holidays is seeing 23 patients. So I felt it was misleading to indicate that there's sort of a in-depth doctor session when it's very brief," Thorndike said. Judge Sullivan said Thorndike's testimony has "limited materiality" and can be established through facility records. "This witness hadn't worked there for a year, so there's at least a gap between when she worked there and when the relevant time period is here. There's also, I imagine, different personnel that were working on different shifts, and so there's kind of limited value to that testimony," the judge said. "So I'm going to deny the defendant's motion to call this witness, but I am going to allow the defendant, if the defendant wishes, to submit those McLean's records specifically regarding the staffing and the programs that are available," Sullivan said. The hearing lasted 40 minutes. You can watch all of it on my YouTube channel and Facebook page. Sullivan recessed the trial for the day after the hearing. Testimony will resume tomorrow (Thursday, August 20, day 17) at 9 a.m. EST / 6 a.m. PST. #law #crime #court

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Wednesday 19 August 2026 20:37:06 GMT