Reporter's inappropriate smile in Lindsay Clancy case came at 'Go to God' mistrial moment

Joe Dwinell, Boston Herald on Aug 26, 2026

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BOSTON — An ill-timed grin and wink for the CourtTV camera in the triple-murder trial of mom Lindsay Clancy has cost a magazine scribe her credentials and came just after the defense sought a mistrial.

The Vanity Fair correspondent is seen hamming it up at the 7:12:05 mark in Monday’s session in Plymouth Superior Court. That’s exactly when the jury was called back to be warned by the judge to ignore testimony by a witness who delved into the “mortal sin” of slaying your babies. The jury was then sent home for the day.

That testimony included Clancy’s telling her children “Go to God” as she strangled them with an exercise rope.

Just minutes before, defense attorney Kevin Reddington moved unsuccessfully for a mistrial based on some of Dr. Kirk Heilbrun’s testimony on Clancy’s Catholic faith. Reddington argued, with the judge agreeing but not declaring a mistrial, that the doctor didn’t have the pedigree to delve into what is and isn’t a sin.

As is CourtTV’s custom, any time the jury is called back in, the camera turns to Clancy, the gallery, the ceiling — any direction but where jurors walk in to protect their anonymity mid-trial.

The image of the journalist in the front row of the gallery then smiling and winking as the camera pans other stone-faced reporters and family members was a stark bookend to a dramatic court exchange that was noticed immediately by thousands watching.

The glossy celebrity magazine announced it has dropped the scribe in the lime-green dress.

“We were interested in the prospect of a personal essay by Brittany Romano about her experience growing up with Lindsay Clancy,” Vanity Fair said in a statement to the New York Post. “Yesterday, after clear conflicts with our editorial standards and processes, we informed Romano that we were not moving forward with her essay and informed the court that she is no longer credentialed by Vanity Fair.”

Romano posted to Instagram that she was receiving threats, adding a slide that read: “A smile is not a crime. Telling a woman to slit her wrists is.”

The Clancy trial has included harrowing details of the deaths of her three young children, and testimony on postpartum psychosis is central to the case that is set to go to the jury Thursday.

It’s an unfortunate sideshow to a grueling case that is nearing a conclusion.

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