2.Brian Josephine — Direct
212 linesTHE COURT: All right, Attorney Sprague.
MS. SPRAGUE: Commonwealth calls Officer Brian Josephine.
COURT CLERK: Good morning to you, sir. Do you solemnly swear that the testimony and the evidence you shall give to the court—
THE COURT: Hi, good morning, sir. All right, counsel.
MS. SPRAGUE: Thank you. Good morning. Could you please state and spell your name for the record?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Brian, B-R-I-A-N. Josephine, J-O-S-E-P-H-I-N-E.
MS. SPRAGUE: And what's your date of birth, sir?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: June 13th, 1990.
MS. SPRAGUE: And where do you work?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: I work at the Duxbury Police Department.
MS. SPRAGUE: How long have you been a police officer?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: I started there in April of 2020.
MS. SPRAGUE: And did you work for the Plymouth Police before that?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, I did.
MS. SPRAGUE: And how long did you do that?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Almost five years.
MS. SPRAGUE: What is your current role?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: I am patrol officer.
MS. SPRAGUE: Back in January of 2023, what was your role with the Duxbury Police Department?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: I was the school resource officer for Alden and Chandler. I work with kids, kindergarten through fifth grade.
MS. SPRAGUE: Directing your attention specifically to January 24th, 2023, were you working an overtime shift that day?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, I had picked up an overtime shift.
MS. SPRAGUE: And what shift was that?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: It was the 4:00 to midnight, but I was scheduled to work till 8:00 PM.
MS. SPRAGUE: 8:00 PM?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, ma'am.
MS. SPRAGUE: Okay. So you were scheduled to be there from 4:00 to... 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM, is that correct?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: That is correct.
MS. SPRAGUE: And you were in a cruiser, in a marked cruiser in a uniform?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, I was fully dressed in Duxbury police uniform. I was in a marked cruiser, Duxbury Police 172.
MS. SPRAGUE: And did you receive a dispatch at approximately 6:11 PM to go to 47 Summer Street in Duxbury?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, we did.
MS. SPRAGUE: And when you say “we,” were you with a partner, or were you alone?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: No, I was by myself. We ride single in a cruiser there.
MS. SPRAGUE: Okay. So when you say “we,” it was... Do you mean that it was dispatched to all officers on patrol?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: So usually with critical incidents calls, they put it over to dispatch, and they'll say, “Duxbury police cars start making your way to a certain address.” That way everyone can get there as quickly as possible.
MS. SPRAGUE: And so then you knew at that point to go to 40- 47 Summer Street?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, ma'am.
MS. SPRAGUE: And approximately how long did it take you to get there?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: I would say anywhere from three to four minutes.
MS. SPRAGUE: So you were relatively close by when you received the dispatch?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, I was.
MS. SPRAGUE: Okay. And when you arrived at 47 Summer Street, what did you observe?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Dispatch was giving me description of the house. It took probably 15 seconds for me to identify the house. Parked in the street. I saw the number of the house, and I made my way. I believe it was a mudroom that I went to.
MS. SPRAGUE: Showing you exhibit 33. When you say the mudroom that you went to, did you actually go inside the house, or did you go to the door to the mudroom?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: I went to the door to the mudroom to check if that was unlocked so I could make my way to the back of the house.
MS. SPRAGUE: And is that door depicted in this photograph?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, it is.
MS. SPRAGUE: And is it the door to the left of the garage?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, it is.
MS. SPRAGUE: And was the door locked or unlocked?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: It was locked at that time.
MS. SPRAGUE: So what did you do next?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: I radioed dispatch just for confirmation of where that party we were trying to get to was located. They told me it was around back of the house, so I tried to make my way that way.
MS. SPRAGUE: And when you went to the back of the house, how did you get there?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Well, referring back to the picture where the car was parked, I went to the right side. And I went around the garage. There was a fence, and I went over the fence, I believe.
MS. SPRAGUE: Showing you exhibit 33. Again, you went by these cars and around the house to the right?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, that's correct.
MS. SPRAGUE: And showing you exhibit 37. Does that mean that you would've been coming around the house over here by the garage on the left and in the porch, the deck?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, that's correct.
MS. SPRAGUE: And when you came around there, what did you see?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: I made my way. I observed two parties, one lying on the ground and one standing over it. And I started to make my way towards the other end of the house, which is as towards this fence, as you guys can see, in reference to that photo.
MS. SPRAGUE: And so when you say the other end of the house, are you talking about this area here, the furthest right two windows?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, that is correct.
MS. SPRAGUE: And the person that was standing, did you later learn that was Patrick Clancy?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, I did.
MS. SPRAGUE: And the person on the ground, did you later learn that was Lindsay Clancy?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, I did.
MS. SPRAGUE: And at some point in time, was Officer Hall also back there with you?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes. He came from this side over here, the opposite direction in which I came.
MS. SPRAGUE: So facing the house, he would've come around the left side of the house, if you're facing the house?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes. He parked on the street and came from this side, the opposite of where I came from.
MS. SPRAGUE: Okay. And do you recall what Patrick Clancy was doing when you first saw him?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: He was standing over Lindsay at that point. It appeared that he was trying to communicate with her. I observed him with a cellphone. It was kinda down by his side, so I don't know if they were talking or what, but it was probably a split second. And then he turned to my location, saw me, 'cause I was illuminating the yard with my flashlight, and then that's when me and him crossed paths.
MS. SPRAGUE: Okay. And so you said you saw him with his cellphone by his side. Was it in his hand by his side?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes. I believe it was in his left hand.
MS. SPRAGUE: Left hand. Okay. And you say you crossed paths with him. Approximately where did you cross paths with him?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: It was probably right by the bulkhead, I would say.
MS. SPRAGUE: And so, in the photograph, to the right of the deck is the bulkhead. Is that correct?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: That is correct.
MS. SPRAGUE: And where was he headed?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: He was heading, I believe, up towards the deck. Yeah. Obviously, I didn't know it at that time, but he was just walking past me pretty fast in an abrupt manner, so...
MS. SPRAGUE: And did he say anything to you as he passed?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: No, he did not.
MS. SPRAGUE: And after you crossed paths with Patrick, where did you go?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: I went to the female party.
MS. SPRAGUE: And did you speak to her?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: I attempted to.
MS. SPRAGUE: And what did you say?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: I just was trying to get basic information, where she was hurt, where she needed attention, anything I could do to kinda help her until fire arrived.
MS. SPRAGUE: And did she respond to your questions?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: She mumbled, and it wasn't a definitive answer.
MS. SPRAGUE: Did you observe any injuries?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes. She was laying on the ground. There was cuts to her right wrist, I believe, and to the right side of her neck.
MS. SPRAGUE: And were those cuts actively bleeding at that time?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: They were bleeding, but not profusely.
MS. SPRAGUE: Are you trained in first aid?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: Did you feel the need to put pressure on those wounds immediately?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: No. We also carry medical equipment such as tourniquet, gauze, stuff like that. And I believe due to the circumstances, that I didn't need to utilize those tools.
MS. SPRAGUE: And the tourniquet that you carry, is that in case someone has some type of cut where an artery has been damaged or cut?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, it is.
MS. SPRAGUE: Okay. And you're trained to recognize when it's a something serious like an artery spraying blood everywhere versus a cut-
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yeah.
MS. SPRAGUE: ...that doesn't need a tourniquet?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, we are.
MS. SPRAGUE: Okay. And you didn't see the need for a tourniquet?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: I did not, no.
MS. SPRAGUE: And based on your training in first aid and as a police officer, as a first responder, did those wounds appear life-threatening?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: No, they did not.
MS. SPRAGUE: Did other emergency personnel from the fire department begin to arrive?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes. So I would say I tried to talk to Ms. Clancy for probably 30 seconds to a minute, and at that point, coming from that opposite side of the house, I observed Duxbury Fire personnel show up. And our protocol is to kinda turn the medical over to them 'cause they're more highly trained than we are.
MS. SPRAGUE: Okay. And at some point in time, do you hear something?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: What do you hear?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Myself and Officer Hall were standing by that window, and we just started hearing loud screams.
MS. SPRAGUE: And what did you do when you heard those loud screams?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: I... We immediately were trying to figure out where they were coming from. I'm not sure if dispatch or something came over the air and said something about the basement, but we both just started making our way back towards the deck part of the house.
MS. SPRAGUE: Did you go in through the sliding glass doors?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, we went up the deck and through the sliding glass doors into the kitchen.
MS. SPRAGUE: And did you then head to the basement?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: Okay. And could you hear any sounds coming from the basement as you entered the kitchen?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, it was the exact screaming that I heard from the window.
MS. SPRAGUE: And did you go down the stairs to the basement?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, we did.
MS. SPRAGUE: And did you see anything as you went down the stair- after you went down the stairs?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: So we went down the stairs, and there was a picture at the bottom of the stairs, I believe, of Lindsay, Lindsay and Patrick. And the basement splits off into two, a right and a left area, and the screams were coming from the right area, so that's where we directed our attention to first.
MS. SPRAGUE: Okay. And did you see Patrick?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes. That right side opens up, and it's, like, two rooms, I believe. So we went into the first room, which was kinda dark, and there was some clutter and stuff around, and Patrick was in that back room at the time.
MS. SPRAGUE: Sir, showing you what's been marked as Exhibit 92, is that the doorway into that back room?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, it is.
MS. SPRAGUE: And then Exhibit 93, is that the inside of that back room?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, it is.
MS. SPRAGUE: And do you recall what, if anything, Patrick was saying as you encountered him?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Upon his observation of us, myself and Officer Hall, he proceeded to head in our direction, leaving that room, and at that point he looked up and he screamed, "She killed the fucking kids."
MS. SPRAGUE: And after he said that, where did you go?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Once he cleared himself from the doorframe, we were able to look inside the room, where we observed what appeared to be a child laying motionless on the floor.
MS. SPRAGUE: And did you later learn his name was Dawson Clancy?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, I did.
MS. SPRAGUE: And how was he positioned?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: He was laying on his back, kinda close to the gym bag, for reference of that.
MS. SPRAGUE: Showing you Exhibit 93 again. You referenced a gym bag. Is that the bag to the left of the child's toy?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: And so, you're saying that he was in that area when you first saw him?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, he was.
MS. SPRAGUE: And do you recall whether he was on his back or his stomach or something else?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: He was on his back.
MS. SPRAGUE: And do you recall his physical appearance?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Like I said, he was laying on his back. His head was tilted to the right-hand side. Looked at him kinda in the face area once we got closer, and his face was white, gray. Lips were blue. Eyes were bloodshot. Looked like blood vessels were popped in his eyes.
MS. SPRAGUE: Did you notice any injuries to his neck?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Seeing that, my first instinct was to kinda grab his head and tilt it to the side, see if I could get a pulse. But, I mean, based on my training experience from previous incidents, I knew it wasn't gonna be good. So I moved the head, and that's when I observed some red marks on that right-hand side.
MS. SPRAGUE: Of the neck?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: And in that exhibit, 94, there was a yellow exercise band, correct?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: I believe in prior testimony you may have called it a blue exercise band. Is that correct?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: But it's clearly yellow in the photo, right?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, it's clearly yellow. I mean, there was—
MR. REDDINGTON: Testing the color of the exercise band.
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Okay.
THE COURT: Right. Good.
MS. SPRAGUE: So what was your focus at the time?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: The child.
MS. SPRAGUE: And once you saw him there with these injuries, what did you do?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Based on my observations, I knew there wasn't really much I could do. So I picked the child up, went chest to chest, and as I did that, there was kinda like a mucus or a foam that leaked out of his mouth onto me. I grabbed him, went back towards the way we came down into the basement, and I headed up to the stairs, where Sergeant Homestead was coming down the stairs, and I started yelling to him to get out of the way. Went back up the stairs, and then into the kitchen. Directly adjacent to the stairs is the front foyer, like hallway, and I went out that, out the main door into the driveway.
MS. SPRAGUE: And was there an ambulance in the driveway at that time?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes. The ambulance was backing up and had pretty much just parked, and one of the fire was walking around to the stretcher out back. So I rushed over with Dawson, and I put him on the stretcher, and that's when Sergeant Homestead and fire personnel started working further on him.
MS. SPRAGUE: What did you do next?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: I went back into the house.
MS. SPRAGUE: And why did you go back into the house?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: I remember hearing something about kids and multiple, and I just went back.
MS. SPRAGUE: And when you went back of the house, did you go to the basement?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, I went back in that front door, back down to the basement, and this time I went to the left-hand side.
MS. SPRAGUE: And when you went to the left-hand side of the basement, what did you see?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Pretty much directly in my sight was an older female laying on the ground, and then in the corner there was, like, a younger baby.
MS. SPRAGUE: And when you say an older female, you're referring to that she was older than Dawson?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: That's correct.
MS. SPRAGUE: And did you later learn her name was Cora Clancy?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: I did.
MS. SPRAGUE: And did you assist in treating her?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, I did.
MS. SPRAGUE: What did you do?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: So when I got down to the basement, two fire personnel were already on scene. One was working on the baby and one was working on Cora. Communicated with them. We worked together, and I took over doing chest compressions of Cora.
MS. SPRAGUE: And were you able to see any injuries on Cora at that time?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes. She had kinda the same injuries that I explained with Dawson. The pale tint, bluish lips, bloodshot eyes, blood vessels popped. But this time she also had, like, dried blood around her mouth.
MS. SPRAGUE: And did you also see an area of blood near her on the floor?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, there was a relatively large area of blood on the floor. Actually, when doing CPR on her, I- [audio garbled].
MS. SPRAGUE: Just showing you what's been marked as Exhibit 97, this red-brown stain on the rug. Is that what you're referring to?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: While you were doing chest compressions on Cora, what was the firefighter doing?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: The one that had previously been attending to Cora then went to the child that was in the corner.
MS. SPRAGUE: And eventually—
MS. SPRAGUE: Was Cora put on a stretcher and brought out?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes, eventually. I think the baby was brought out first because I think they mentioned at some point they might have found, like, a faint pulse or something like that. So they got him out first, and then we were able to get Cora out.
MS. SPRAGUE: So that entire time while you're in the basement, are you still giving chest compressions to Cora?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes. Yeah. I mean, it felt like forever to the point where I think I radioed for assistance for another officer to come down.
MS. SPRAGUE: And did others come down to assist?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes. Officer Cahill came down to further assist, where I continued with chest compressions, and he used a bag valve mask to give rescue breaths.
MS. SPRAGUE: And a bag valve mask, is that something that goes over someone's face, a mask that's attached to a bag, and you squeeze it to give air?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes. It's a alternative breathing apparatus.
MS. SPRAGUE: At some point, do you go back upstairs to the first floor?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: And do you encounter Patrick Clancy when you go upstairs?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: Yes. So when they removed Cora, myself and Officer Cahill went back upstairs, where I encountered Mr. Clancy in the kitchen.
MS. SPRAGUE: And what was his demeanor in the kitchen?
BRIAN JOSEPHINE: He was still frantic, kinda in shock, still screaming and losing himself. And I think at that point, I don't know, one of us requested that we get an ambulance for him as well.
MS. SPRAGUE: Thank you, sir. Nothing further.
THE COURT: All right. Attorney Reddington?
MR. REDDINGTON: I'm sorry. I have no questions.
THE COURT: All right. Thank you. You may step down. Thank you.