Photo via Fox News

Clancy father targeted in alleged wiretap as medical lawsuits hint at strategy split: cops

Read the original at Fox News ↗
Cite

Sabes, A. (2026, October 30). Clancy father targeted in alleged wiretap as medical lawsuits hint at strategy split: cops. Fox News. https://www.foxnews.com/us/clancy-father-targeted-alleged-wiretap-medical-lawsuits-hint-strategy-split-cops

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

Fox News · collected 2026-10-30 · by Adam Sabes

Quick Summary

Shawna Gramkow, a true crime influencer with over 50,000 followers on social media, was charged with felony unlawful wiretapping on October 20 after she posted what police say is an unauthorized recording of a call involving Patrick Clancy’s father, Christopher Clancy. According to the incident report, Gramkow recorded and shared a conversation from August 6 where Christopher inadvertently answered an unknown caller's phone call while driving in Scituate, Massachusetts, discussing his son Brian without realizing it was being recorded. This comes amid reported legal strategy differences between Patrick and Lindsay Clancy regarding their lawsuits against medical providers.
Written by AI on 2026-11-02, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

Shawna Gramkow, a true crime influencer with over 50,000 followers on social media, was charged with felony unlawful wiretapping after posting a secret recording of a call involving Patrick Clancy's father, Christopher Clancy. The incident occurred on September 4, and Gramkow posted the video to Instagram on August 30. According to police, Gramkow claimed that she called a phone number read aloud by Lindsay Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, during Patrick Clancy's murder trial. Christopher Clancy inadvertently answered the call while still connected from another line. The case highlights tensions between social media influencers and legal proceedings, as well as potential breaches of privacy in high-profile cases.

Written for “Clancy Father Targeted In Wiretap” on 2026-11-02, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
This article does not take a side on a contested political question, so it has no leaning score. That is an answer rather than a gap: a match report or a rescue can be warmly or critically written without being left or right, and scoring it anyway is how approval of a subject gets recorded as a political position.
No political leaning scored for article 117588 · logged 2026-11-02

Story

📰 Clancy Father Targeted In Wiretap
Crime & Law · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 4% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
New York Post
Hedges 7 of 23 claims Outlet record 66/100
“The articles describe different dates for when the video or audio was posted: Article A mentions an Instagram post on September 4th, while Article B cites August 30th.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
27
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
4%
1 of 27 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
69/100
Fox News's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Crime & Law
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-11-02 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Fox News · 6262 article(s) · 11 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 11 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Adam Sabes
31 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 Last Halloween, an estimated 500 teens swarmed downtown Oak Park, where fights and gunshots erupted and police called in help from six neighboring agencies, according to a department memo. Oak Park Chief of Police Shatonya Johnson said the agency will be increasing the amount of officers on shift during Halloween, as well as several more measures aimed at preventing another teen takeover. Adults in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago are taking matters into their own hands and plan to show out en masse on the streets to prevent large gatherings by teenagers.
🔮 "We believe that Lindsay Clancy, once her Fifth Amendment issues are resolved one way or the other, will testify that she told these defendants explicitly that she had homicidal ideation, that she was worried about something awful happening to her kids," Cooper said in court.
🔮 Lindsay Clancy's lawyer disputed claims from Patrick Clancy's counsel that she would testify in a civil case against her healthcare providers, calling them false.
🔮 "That community should put out an emergency text to everyone to make sure none of their family members are missing as he could have killed or kidnapped someone after ditching the truck," Gilliam said.
🔮 Police took the following students into custody: William Oldner, 19, Noah Lara, 20, Tyler Fogg, 18, and Wyatt Carr, 18.
🔮 During the meeting, Mayor Craig Timmons acknowledged the concerns and said he hopes the situation can be resolved.
🔮 Judge Gail Horne Ray had ruled in August that Brooks' supporters could wear pink in the courtroom, but on Monday she found Fowlkes in contempt for failing to redact Brooks' full name from the filing.
🔮 "It looks like to us that what we're piecing together, is that that he may have tried to get that pistol and the individual was fighting him and they had a fight and the guy got the pistol and shot Mr. Bobby multiple times.
🔮 Judge Debra McCaslin sided with the defense over prosecutors’ objections Friday, allowing new testing on swabs from Maggie Murdaugh’s cellphone and clippings from under her fingernails, even though the process will likely use up the last of the testable samples.
🔮 Deller testified that she didn't initially call 911 after shooting Deller because she thought police wouldn't believe her self-defense claim.
Also by Adam Sabes
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 31 articles by Adam Sabes →

Topics

Florida Fox News Digital Instagram Massachusetts the Town of Scituate

Subjects

Clancy PERSON · 5× Lindsay Clancy PERSON · 5× Gramkow PERSON · 4× Patrick PERSON · 4× Christopher Clancy PERSON · 3× Fox News Digital ORG · 3× Patrick Clancy PERSON · 3× Instagram ORG · 2× Kevin Reddington PERSON · 2× Patrick Clancy's PERSON · 2×

Narrative

In a statement obtained by Fox News Digital, Reddington said his client has never said she'll testify, adding that she never told her healthcare providers that she had homicidal thoughts toward her children. "It has come to my attention that counsel for Patrick Clancy represented to the court in his civil case that my client, Lindsay Clancy, will testify about statements she made to her healthcare providers," Reddington said.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-11-02
🔮 "We believe that Lindsay Clancy, once her Fifth Amendment issues are resolved one way or the other, will testify that she told these defendants explicitly that she had homicidal ideation, that she was worried about something awful happening to her kids," Cooper said in court.

Claims (27 extracted, 1 hedged)

A true crime influencer has been charged with wiretapping after police say she posted a secret recording of a call with Patrick Clancy's father, who told investigators he accidentally answered the call. asserted
he → charge → call
Shawna Gramkow, who operates several true crime accounts on social media and boasts a following of more than 50,000, was charged with felony unlawful wiretapping on Oct. 20 in relation to an incident that happened on Sept. 4 involving Patrick Clancy's father, Christopher Clancy, police said in an incident report obtained by Fox News Digital. asserted
police → operate → Digital
Police said Gramkow posted a video to Instagram on Aug. 30 of an unknown individual calling a phone number she claimed belonged to Patrick Clancy after Lindsay Clancy's attorney, Kevin Reddington, read the number aloud during the murder trial. " asserted
attorney → say → trial
So, you guys voted and Patrick said yes. asserted
Patrick → vote → ?
So, at the trial Kevin Reddington released Patrick's phone number and one of y'all decided to give him a call. asserted
one → release → call
Now on this particular call, Patrick's dad was still on the line, he was kind of mumbling still on the phone, I guess he didn't know that the phone was still going," she said in the video, police wrote in the incident report. asserted
police → mumble → report
In the video, the detective said, an adult male can be heard speaking, though he was unable to make out what was being said. asserted
what → say → video
When Christopher Clancy reported the incident to law enforcement on Sept. 4, he told police he believed the voice was his and came from a phone call he received on Aug. 6. asserted
he → report → Aug.
Christopher Clancy said he accidentally answered the call, which came from an unfamiliar number, instead of declining it. asserted
which → say → it
Police allege someone recorded the conversation without his consent, saying he was talking about his oldest son Brian. asserted
he → allege → son
That conversation was then posted to her Instagram, according to the incident report. uncertain
conversation → post → report
Mr. Clancy recalls while driving in the Town of Scituate sometime around August 6th, 2026 he received a phone call from a telephone number he did not recognize. asserted
he → recall → number
Instead of declining the incoming call; he believes he accidently answered, creating an open line of communication for the unknown calling party who proceeded to record Mr. Clancy's comments without his knowledge or consent. asserted
who → decline → knowledge
Mr. Clancy recognized some of his comments as being in regard to his eldest son Brian," police wrote. asserted
police → recognize → son
While Massachusetts officials have charged Gramkow with wiretapping, officials in Florida confirmed she hasn't been arrested. asserted
she → charge → Florida
Fox News Digital reached out to Gramkow for comment. asserted
Digital → reach → comment
In a Facebook video that did not specifically address the charges, Gramkow said the "allegations are false. asserted
allegations → address → charges
" "And yes I got all the 'Dirty Deets,'" she wrote. asserted
she → get → Deets
The charges come amid an apparent split in legal strategy between Patrick and Lindsay Clancy in their separate lawsuits against her medical providers. asserted
charges → come → providers
During a hearing Wednesday in Norfolk County Superior Court, attorney Howard Cooper said he expects Lindsay Clancy to testify in a lawsuit filed by her ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, against her healthcare providers. asserted
Clancy → say → providers
"We believe that Lindsay Clancy, once her Fifth Amendment issues are resolved one way or the other, will testify that she told these defendants explicitly that she had homicidal ideation, that she was worried about something awful happening to her kids," Cooper said in court. asserted
Cooper → believe → court
In a statement obtained by Fox News Digital, Reddington said his client has never said she'll testify, adding that she never told her healthcare providers that she had homicidal thoughts toward her children. "It has come to my attention that counsel for Patrick Clancy represented to the court in his civil case that my client, Lindsay Clancy, will testify about statements she made to her healthcare providers," Reddington said. asserted
Reddington → obtain → providers
"Lindsay Clancy never told any of her healthcare providers that she harbored homicidal ideation toward her children. asserted
she → tell → children
She never indicated that she intended to testify in Mr. Clancy's lawsuit, and no one acting for her ever represented that she would. asserted
she → indicate → her
" "Mr. Clancy's counsel does not speak for Lindsay Clancy," he added. asserted
he → speak → Clancy
Lindsay Clancy faced three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her children, who were found strangled at the family's home in January 2023. asserted
who → face → January
Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial on Friday, Sept. 4, after jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict, ending in an 11-1 divide. asserted
jurors → declare → divide
💬Give feedback
🕘History 🎫Support