Clancy lawyers seek inquiry into holdout juror

Lawyers for Lindsay Clancy are asking a Massachusetts judge to investigate the lone juror who wanted to convict her of murder in the deaths of her three children, a move that could shape whether prosecutors try the case again after a mistrial.

In a motion filed Friday and made public Monday, Clancy’s defense team asked the court to question juror Michael Desronvil about his alleged use of a cellphone during deliberations, his truthfulness on a questionnaire completed by prospective jurors before trial and his truthfulness when jurors were questioned by the judge the day before the trial ended.

Clancy’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, also asked the court to obtain records of any calls or texts Desronvil made between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on each day the jury deliberated. Phone use during deliberations is prohibited in Massachusetts.

The judge declared a mistrial Sept. 4 after jurors said they could not reach a unanimous verdict despite days of deliberations. Eleven of the 12 jurors were prepared to clear Clancy of criminal responsibility, with most concluding that she was experiencing postpartum psychosis, a rare condition, when she strangled her children. Desronvil sided with prosecutors, who argued that Clancy knew what she was doing.

Prosecutors have not said whether they will try Clancy again. She remains charged with murder and is being held in a psychiatric hospital while the case remains unresolved.

In a separate motion Monday, Clancy’s lawyers asked the judge to dismiss the criminal case rather than allow a new trial. They argued that the mistrial should not have been declared and that the judge should have replaced Desronvil with an alternate juror during deliberations after the jury foreperson complained that one juror was refusing to follow the law on reasonable doubt.

“Ms. Clancy, like all criminal defendants, had a Constitutional right to have her fate decided by an impartial jury of her peers, faithfully applying the law as instructed rather than superimposing the juror’s own view of legal right and wrong, including the foundational principle that, absent proof beyond a reasonable doubt of her guilt, she must be acquitted,” her attorneys wrote in the motion to dismiss. “The multiple reports of a juror violating this bedrock principle, therefore, required a judicial inquiry sufficient to ascertain whether her right to an impartial jury was being violated.”

A spokesperson for Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz declined to comment on the motions.

Desronvil has not been accused of wrongdoing in connection with his jury service, though other jurors complained that he was inflexible in his view that Clancy was guilty.

In a statement released last week by his lawyer, Edward Paltzik, Desronvil defended his position and said he “didn’t have any doubts” that Clancy knew what she was doing when she killed her three children.

“As I tried to explain different possible theories during deliberation, I kept getting cut off as if I had doubts based on the evidence present,” he said.

“Based on all the physical evidence, key witnesses, and what the prosecution presents, I thought it was enough proof that she knew exactly what she was doing and planned,” the statement said.