Dan Lawler

Dan Lawler testified for the Commonwealth on Day 12 about collecting hospital evidence and documenting items found during the search of 47 Summer Street. A State Police sergeant by the time of trial, he clarified that he had been a trooper during the investigation, not its lead investigator. He described Lindsay Clancy as unable to speak at South Shore Hospital, with visible injuries and medical equipment attached. He served notice to preserve blood and urine and received clothing and rings. The court admitted a tank top, jeans and bra as Exhibits 223–225.

As the residential search's evidence officer, Lawler documented items located by investigators. He confirmed that four prescription bottles contained 20 Trazodone pills, 2½ Diazepam 5-milligram pills, 9½ Diazepam 2-milligram pills and 22 Amitriptyline 10-milligram pills. He denied making a pink mark through the printed quantity on one Diazepam label but could not establish when it appeared. Under cross-examination, he qualified his knowledge of device ownership and identity and did not recall blood on the phones.

Questions about hospital access led to an examination outside the jury's presence concerning an alleged suggestion that a doctor had prompted Clancy to report hearing voices. After initially expressing limited recollection, Lawler acknowledged that investigators had discussed that theory. He said his information about Clancy's call to her husband was secondhand, that he had overheard no doctor-patient conversation and that he knew of no evidence of prompting. On resumed cross-examination, he agreed with Kevin Reddington's characterization that the theory discussed with McKelligan was speculation without an investigative basis.

Lawler also described hospital custody staffing while emphasizing uncertainty about restraints, the duration of restrictions and visitation after his assignment. On redirect, he agreed that investigative theories change with evidence and denied that his conversation with McKelligan affected his testimony. His examination ended when the judge sustained a scope objection to Reddington's recross question, leaving no further substantive answer.