Judge Rules Against Delay of Broderick’s 2nd Murder Trial

Even with a new rash of publicity over a jail scuffle, La Jolla socialite Elisabeth Anne (Betty) Broderick’s second murder trial will begin today as scheduled, a San Diego Superior Court judge ruled Thursday.

Denying a defense bid for a continuance, Judge Thomas J. Whelan said that, since the case had already been the subject of countless newspaper, magazine and television stories, recent news accounts of a Sept. 1 jail scuffle between Broderick and guards provided no reason for delay.

Defense attorney Jack Earley said the accounts--and a videotape of the jailhouse fight, which surfaced Wednesday--might “poison the jury panel against Mrs. Broderick.” But Whelan said in a court hearing that all that mattered was finding jurors who can promise to be fair, and that it was time to get on with that process.

Broderick, 43, is charged with two counts of murder in the Nov. 5, 1989, shooting deaths of her ex-husband, Daniel T. Broderick III, 44, and his new wife, Linda Kolkena Broderick, 28.

Daniel Broderick was a prominent medical malpractice attorney and a former president of the San Diego County Bar Assn. Linda Kolkena Broderick was his office assistant.

Betty Broderick’s first trial ended last November in a hung jury, with 10 jurors voting to convict her of murder and two for manslaughter. She has remained at the Las Colinas Jail in Santee since she surrendered to authorities the day of the killings.

Betty Broderick fought with jail guards Sept. 1 after they ordered her to go to an isolation cell. The scuffle left three jail guards with minor injuries. One of the guards, Michelle St. Clair, filed suit against Betty Broderick this week, seeking damages for her injuries.

St. Clair’s attorney, James J. Cunningham, made an edited version of a videotape of the scuffle available Wednesday to San Diego television stations, officials at various stations said. The tape aired that night on several news shows.

Sheriff Jim Roache, whose department made the video, on Thursday, called the release of the tape “inappropriate and unprofessional.”