Dawn Light was arrested Tuesday afternoon outside the Plymouth District Courthouse and charged with one count of intimidation of a witness, jurors after police said she allegedly tried to photograph jurors in the Lindsay Clancy trial. The arrest came at about 3:40 p.m., just after the jury had been sent home early.
That timing mattered because the jury had already told the judge it was at an impasse on a verdict. In a case already under tight court protection, that meant the trial was moving under rules meant to keep the jurors anonymous while deliberations continued. Light, 56, of Sutton, was the person arrested in that moment, turning a courthouse routine into a new security issue around a high-profile murder trial.
The jury in the case consisted of nine women and three men, but it was not disclosed how they were split when they said they could not reach a verdict. That missing detail leaves the court’s next problem unchanged: whether the alleged attempt outside the courthouse crossed the line from presence to interference, and whether the juror-protection rules were enough to prevent it.
Media had already been ordered to stay away from the jurors during the trial and especially during deliberations, with TV cameras required to turn away each time the jury was called in or dismissed so the panel would remain anonymous. The alleged effort to photograph jurors came despite those restrictions, and that is why the arrest drew immediate attention.
Light is slated to be arraigned Wednesday. For now, the central fact is simple: while the Lindsay Clancy trial was already stalled on a deadlocked jury, a woman leaving the courthouse became the subject of a witness-and-juror intimidation charge tied to the very people deciding the case.
