Lindsay Clancy Trial: Psychiatrist Saw No Active Psychosis in 20-Minute Evaluation

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
This is live courtroom coverage of the trial of Lindsay Clancy from the Hidden Killers podcast in True Crime Today.

**Robert Flynn** (0:08)
Now, back to the courtroom. All right. Good afternoon, doctor.

**Jhilam Biswas** (0:13)
Good afternoon.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:14)
All right.

**Robert Flynn** (0:15)
Call them all, please.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:15)
Thank you, Your Honor. Good afternoon. Can you please state and spell your first and last name?

**Jhilam Biswas** (0:20)
Yes. My name is Jhilam Biswas. My first name is spelled J-H-I-L-A-M, last name spelled B-I-S-W-A-S.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:30)
Your date of birth?

**Jhilam Biswas** (0:32)
Date of birth is 9-12-1982.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:35)
What do you do for a living?

**Jhilam Biswas** (0:36)
I'm a forensic psychiatrist and I work at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:42)
What is a forensic psychologist or psychiatrist?

**Jhilam Biswas** (0:46)
Well, I'm a forensic psychiatrist by specialty training. We work in the courts often doing forensic evaluations of individuals, but I'm also an adult psychiatrist and I work at Brigham and Women's Hospital as an adult psychiatrist on the consult liaison unit.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:08)
Can you just briefly describe your education and training background qualifies you for this work?

**Jhilam Biswas** (1:13)
Sure. I grew up in the South Shore. I went to Dartmouth College and then I went to medical school at UMass Chan Medical School. I then did my psychiatry residency at Harvard Longwood, which consists of Brigham and Women's, Beth Israel, Boston Children's at the time.
After that, I did subspecialty training after my psychiatry residency in Forensic Psychiatry, again at UMass Chan Medical School.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:45)
Focusing in on January of 2023, were you working at the Brigham and Women's Hospital?

**Jhilam Biswas** (1:53)
I was.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:54)
Specifically on January 25th, 2023, did you interact with a patient there named Lindsay Clancy?

**Jhilam Biswas** (2:02)
I did on January 26th.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:04)
26th, okay. And in what capacity did you interact with her? As a Forensic Psychiatrist or as a member of the staff at Brigham and Women's?

**Jhilam Biswas** (2:14)
I interacted with her as a member of the staff, the psychiatry staff at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:20)
And did you have a particular role that day on January 26th, 2023?

**Jhilam Biswas** (2:27)
Yes. I was on the Consulate Liaison Service, which is the psychiatry service that's called Biomedical and Surgical Specialties to help evaluate and provide psychiatric recommendations.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:40)
And did you meet with Ms. Clancy on that day, on the 26th?

**Jhilam Biswas** (2:44)
I did.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:45)
And was that around 2, 14 p.m. that you had that interaction?

**Jhilam Biswas** (2:49)
I think it was somewhere between 2 and 3 o'clock, yes.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:52)
And when you met with Lindsay Clancy, was that in her hospital room in the ICU?
It was. And was she intubated at the time?

**Jhilam Biswas** (3:01)
She was.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:02)
And was she awake?

**Jhilam Biswas** (3:04)
She was awake.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:05)
And was she oriented?

**Jhilam Biswas** (3:09)
So she was intubated, so it was difficult for her to really answer a lot, a range of questions. And so she gestured to me to be able to write.
And so we knew that she was really exhausted and anxious from the entire experience and the evaluation. And so we didn't ask her all of the questions around orientation.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:34)
When she gestured that she wanted to write, did you give her something to write with or something to write on?

**Jhilam Biswas** (3:39)
I did.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:40)
And what did you give her?

**Jhilam Biswas** (3:41)
Paper.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:42)
And did you also give her a pen or something like that?

**Jhilam Biswas** (3:44)
I did.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:45)
And was she able to, when you asked her certain questions, was she able to answer those questions by writing the answers on the paper?

**Jhilam Biswas** (3:54)
She was.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:55)
And did you ask her about her mood that day?

**Jhilam Biswas** (3:59)
I did ask her her mood.

**SPEAKER_1** (4:00)
And what did she write?

**Jhilam Biswas** (4:02)
She wrote, horrified.

**SPEAKER_1** (4:04)
And what was her affect during this interaction?

**Jhilam Biswas** (4:08)
At the time that I saw her, she was intubated and that in and of itself is very uncomfortable. And so she seemed very anxious.

**SPEAKER_1** (4:18)
And did she write anything else on that paper that you saw?

**Jhilam Biswas** (4:25)
Yes, the entire evaluation was done through writing because she couldn't speak.

**SPEAKER_1** (4:31)
So what types of questions were you asking her and what was she responding with?

**Jhilam Biswas** (4:35)
So we asked her, you know, how are you feeling? Horrified. And then she wrote down, do I have an attorney? And I said with my team that at this time, we're just getting to know you and getting to know the case. And we're not sure exactly, you know, what is happening. And we asked her, do you have questions for us? And she asked, is my body broken?