3.PJ Hussey — Direct
179 linesMS. SPRAGUE: Commonwealth calls PJ Hussey.
MR. REDDINGTON: Your Honor, at this point I'm objecting, renewing my objection that I filed on the repetitions from each side.
THE COURT: All right. If we could, if I could see you in sidebar.
COURT CLERK: Back to the trial, Commonwealth versus Lindsay Clancy. All parties are present, including the defendant and the 18 jurors.
THE COURT: All right. Commonwealth ready to call your next witness?
MS. SPRAGUE: Yes. Commonwealth calls PJ Hussey.
COURT CLERK: Good morning. Do you solemnly swear that the testimony and the evidence you shall give to the court and the jury in the matter now pending between the Commonwealth and the defendant at the bar shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
BAILIFF: Watch your step, please.
THE COURT: Hi. Good morning, sir.
PJ HUSSEY: Good morning.
THE COURT: Hi.
MS. SPRAGUE: If I may.
THE COURT: Yes, please.
MS. SPRAGUE: Thank you. Good morning. Could you please state and spell your name for the record?
PJ HUSSEY: PJ Hussey. H-U-S-S-E-Y.
MS. SPRAGUE: And your date of birth?
PJ HUSSEY: 5/5/1963.
MS. SPRAGUE: Where do you work?
PJ HUSSEY: Duxbury Fire Department.
MS. SPRAGUE: And how long have you been a firefighter?
PJ HUSSEY: 32 years.
MS. SPRAGUE: Are you also a paramedic?
PJ HUSSEY: Yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: What's the difference between an EMT and a paramedic?
PJ HUSSEY: A paramedic has advanced life-saving skills, intubation, and medicine we can use on the patients.
MS. SPRAGUE: And is there a certain type of training that you have to have as a paramedic?
PJ HUSSEY: Yes, every two years.
MS. SPRAGUE: And to first qualify as a paramedic, what do you have to do?
PJ HUSSEY: There's the paramedic class that you take—
MS. SPRAGUE: Okay.
PJ HUSSEY: ... Upwards of two years.
MS. SPRAGUE: So you take that paramedic class, is there a test you have to take at the end of it?
PJ HUSSEY: A state test, yep.
MS. SPRAGUE: And once you pass that state test and become a paramedic, you have to do continuing education, is that correct?
PJ HUSSEY: Yep.
MS. SPRAGUE: Okay. And did you take that initial training, pass that initial test, and then pass all subsequent training to be a paramedic?
PJ HUSSEY: Yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: And how long have you been a paramedic?
PJ HUSSEY: About 17 years.
MS. SPRAGUE: What is your current role with the Duxbury fire department?
PJ HUSSEY: I'm a captain, which is considered a shift commander.
MS. SPRAGUE: Okay. And in January of 2023, were you in that same role?
PJ HUSSEY: Yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: What does a shift commander do?
PJ HUSSEY: Oversees the operations of the town as far as firefighting and medical services.
MS. SPRAGUE: How many fire departments, or stations rather, how many stations does Duxbury Fire Department have?
PJ HUSSEY: Duxbury has two.
MS. SPRAGUE: Okay. And how far apart are they?
PJ HUSSEY: About 10 minutes apart.
MS. SPRAGUE: And are they staffed differently than from each other?
PJ HUSSEY: Yes. Yeah.
MS. SPRAGUE: And how are they staffed?
PJ HUSSEY: At the central station, there's a captain and usually three, and the other station, there's two. Just two firefighters.
MS. SPRAGUE: And for Duxbury, are all the firefighters that work for Duxbury Fire Department also paramedics?
PJ HUSSEY: Not all. We have two, two EMTs.
MS. SPRAGUE: Okay.
PJ HUSSEY: Yeah.
MS. SPRAGUE: Now—
PJ HUSSEY: The rest are medics.
MS. SPRAGUE: I'm sorry?
PJ HUSSEY: The rest are medics.
MS. SPRAGUE: And when you say medics, you're talking about paramedics?
PJ HUSSEY: Yeah. Sorry.
MS. SPRAGUE: No, that's okay. So directing your attention to January 24th, 2023, were you working that day?
PJ HUSSEY: Yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: And what shift were you working?
PJ HUSSEY: My own shift. My group, shift one.
MS. SPRAGUE: And what is shift one?
PJ HUSSEY: It's just, we have four, four shifts, and I'm just group one. Shift one.
MS. SPRAGUE: Is there a certain time that spans? Like time of day?
PJ HUSSEY: No. 24-hour shift. 8:00 in the morning to 8:00 the next morning.
MS. SPRAGUE: Okay. So you were working 8:00 in the morning on January 24th?
PJ HUSSEY: Yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: And your shift would end 8:00 in the morning on January 25th?
PJ HUSSEY: Correct.
MS. SPRAGUE: Okay. And were you working in that capacity as a shift commander on the 24th?
PJ HUSSEY: Yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: Now, do you recall a call coming in shortly after 6:00 PM, dispatching you to 47 Summer Street in Duxbury?
PJ HUSSEY: Yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: And did you respond to that scene?
PJ HUSSEY: We did.
MS. SPRAGUE: And how many vehicles and personnel responded?
PJ HUSSEY: My car, the shift commander car, ambulance one, and engine number two.
MS. SPRAGUE: And what was the personnel in each of those vehicles?
MS. SPRAGUE: Not names necessarily, but how many people.
PJ HUSSEY: We put... Usually it's two in the ambulance, but because of the severity of the call when it first came in, we put three people in the ambulance. The driver plus two medics in the ambulance, and then two people, two firefighter medics in the engine from the other station.
MS. SPRAGUE: Okay. So that would be six people in total?
PJ HUSSEY: Six in total, yeah.
MS. SPRAGUE: Okay.
PJ HUSSEY: Yeah.
MS. SPRAGUE: And did you have anyone from the second station respond initially?
PJ HUSSEY: They all came, we all came at the same time. We all got dispatched at the same time.
MS. SPRAGUE: So would that have been six people total from both stations, or six people from the central station?
PJ HUSSEY: Six people total from both.
MS. SPRAGUE: And when you arrived on scene, what did you see upon arrival?
PJ HUSSEY: There's a couple police cruisers that were there already, just, had just beat us in. And then, we had to go out back to where the patient was located.
MS. SPRAGUE: Okay. And when you refer to the patient that was out back, was that Lindsay Clancy?
PJ HUSSEY: Yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: And did you head to the backyard?
PJ HUSSEY: Yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: And did you see her on the ground?
PJ HUSSEY: I did.
MS. SPRAGUE: And were you personally treating her, or was it the other paramedics that were doing-
PJ HUSSEY: The other paramedics were treating her.
MS. SPRAGUE: Okay.
PJ HUSSEY: Yeah.
MS. SPRAGUE: And what were you doing?
PJ HUSSEY: Just supervising the call. Just make sure things are handled appropriately as a shift commander.
MS. SPRAGUE: Showing you what's been marked as exhibit 37, do you see the area where you were in the backyard that night on the screen?
PJ HUSSEY: Yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: If you wouldn't mind standing up and just pointing where you were.
PJ HUSSEY: The patient was approximately right here. I was over here, in this area here.
MS. SPRAGUE: And if the record reflect, you pointed to the patient being to the right of the metal window well, and you were standing to the left of the window well, is that correct?
PJ HUSSEY: Yeah. She was right below this window, so some place, she was right in this area here.
MS. SPRAGUE: Okay.
PJ HUSSEY: And I was just about to front door.
MS. SPRAGUE: And when you said right below this window, you're pointing to the far right second story window?
PJ HUSSEY: Yes, far right. Yep. Yep.
MS. SPRAGUE: Yes.
PJ HUSSEY: Thank you.
MS. SPRAGUE: At some point in time while you were standing there, did you hear a loud noise?
PJ HUSSEY: I heard a scream.
MS. SPRAGUE: Scream. And when you heard the scream, could you tell where it was coming from?
PJ HUSSEY: It sounded like it was coming from the basement.
MS. SPRAGUE: And did you look anywhere in particular?
PJ HUSSEY: Yeah, I was able to look through the basement window and able to see a male person downstairs.
MS. SPRAGUE: And when you say the basement window, are you referring to that first—
PJ HUSSEY: Yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: ... metal window well?
PJ HUSSEY: Yes. Yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: That was in exhibit 37.
MS. SPRAGUE: Just showing you again on the screen here what's been marked as exhibit 50, this window here on the right, does that fairly represent the window that you looked through and could see down into that—
PJ HUSSEY: Yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: ... basement office?
PJ HUSSEY: Yeah.
MS. SPRAGUE: And was the light on in the basement office when you looked in?
PJ HUSSEY: The light was on, yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: And what did you see when you looked in the window?
PJ HUSSEY: After I heard the scream, I saw a male, older male gentleman, now knowing it was Patrick Clancy, unwrapping something from a child's head.
MS. SPRAGUE: And when you saw the male unwrapping something, can you demonstrate the motion that they were doing?
PJ HUSSEY: Yeah. The child was on the ground, the head was towards the window, so the head was towards the back of the house, and he was picked the child up, and he was in a circular motion taking something off the head. Around the head, around the neck.
MS. SPRAGUE: And could you see the child's face?
PJ HUSSEY: Yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: And what observations did you make of the child's face?
PJ HUSSEY: The head was blue.
MS. SPRAGUE: And did you later learn that child was Dawson Clancy?
PJ HUSSEY: Yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: At that point, what did you do?
PJ HUSSEY: Because of the severity of Ms. Clancy on the ground, and now we have another patient, I put a all-call in, which is a recall of Duxbury personnel, all Duxbury personnel, if they're available, to come back to the town to help out. For one, I need help on the scene, and I also need help in the town to cover the town while I'm busy at the scene. And I also requested a mutual aid ambulance to respond to the scene.
MS. SPRAGUE: Because at that time there was only one ambulance that was responding?
PJ HUSSEY: One ambulance for Ms. Clancy, yes, and then I called another, seeing the next patient, I called another ambulance in.
MS. SPRAGUE: Okay. And what is mutual aid?
PJ HUSSEY: Mutual aid is a—it's a shared system that all the towns use that, if we get busy or busy with calls, we have to call help in from surrounding towns to give us a hand, whether it be fire-related or medical-related.
MS. SPRAGUE: Does Duxbury only have one ambulance?
PJ HUSSEY: We have three.
MS. SPRAGUE: Three, but you only had one staffed that night?
PJ HUSSEY: Yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: Okay. So you call in for an additional ambulance. At some point in time, do you learn that there are two other patients—
PJ HUSSEY: Yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: ... Cora Clancy and Callan Clancy?
PJ HUSSEY: Yes.
MS. SPRAGUE: At that point in time, do you have to do anything to call in more assistance?
PJ HUSSEY: I... Well, the recall for Duxbury personnel was already put in, so I called two more ambulances at that point.
MS. SPRAGUE: And the scene that night, you know, discovering another victim, another victim, was that a chaotic scene?
PJ HUSSEY: It turned very chaotic very quickly.
MS. SPRAGUE: Okay.
PJ HUSSEY: Yeah.
MS. SPRAGUE: And was it a situation where people would start treating a patient, but then have to move onto something else, and someone would take over?
PJ HUSSEY: Sort of. I had four... So I had myself as a shift commander. I had an EMT with me, but there's also four paramedics. So the way it ended up working, all the initial paramedics were with Ms. Clancy in the beginning, and then when we found the other patients, we left a paramedic with Ms. Clancy, a paramedic with Dawson, and then two paramedics were with the two other kids in the other room.
MS. SPRAGUE: And did someone eventually also have to be with Patrick Clancy?
PJ HUSSEY: Eventually, yes. Yeah, but at the time, there was nobody with him in the beginning.
MS. SPRAGUE: I have nothing further. Thank you.
PJ HUSSEY: Okay.
THE COURT: All right. Counsel?
MR. REDDINGTON: No questions. Thank you, sir.
THE COURT: All right.
PJ HUSSEY: Sure.
THE COURT: Thank you, sir.
PJ HUSSEY: Thank you.