Broderick Is Called Threat, Denied Bail : Crime: A state prosecutor says the children of the woman accused of killing their father and stepmother fear she will harm them if released.

Elisabeth Broderick was denied the right to bail on double-murder charges Wednesday after a state prosecutor alleged that her children fear she will harm them if she is released.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Kerry Wells said Broderick often showed the .38-caliber revolver she allegedly used to kill Daniel T. Broderick III and his new wife, Linda, to her two young boys and threatened “to use that gun to kill their father.”

“The boys literally pleaded with her to get rid of the gun,” Wells said. “And one of them actually attempted to take it and hide it so she couldn’t use it.”

But defense attorney Mark Alexander Wolf said Daniel Broderick, a lawyer, doctor and past president of the San Diego County Bar Assn., posed more of a threat to the couple’s four children than did Elisabeth.

“Her biggest concern is the welfare of her children and her husband’s failure to take care of those children,” Wolf said of his client. “And there were threats the husband had visited upon the kids, both physical and emotional, and involving neglect.”

Wolf also said that Daniel Broderick felt comfortable enough with his ex-wife to recently consider transferring legal custody of the children to her.

“Daniel Broderick never wanted to have the children, based on the way he treated them,” Wolf said. “And yet this was a mother who wanted her children and they were being kept from her. They had been kept by him, and she was tortured by her husband for four years.”

After the hearing, Wolf declined to elaborate on his allegations of abuse by Daniel Broderick. But, carrying a book titled “Why Battered Women Kill,” he indicated that both Elisabeth and the children had been subjected to abuse.

Municipal Judge Allan J. Preckel refused to set bail, however.

“There is clear and convincing evidence that Mrs. Broderick’s release on bail would pose a substantial likelihood of resultant bodily harm to others,” he said in a statement. “Accordingly, her release on bail is not appropriate, and therefore bail is denied.”

Elisabeth and Daniel Broderick were divorced in 1986, after she contended that he was unfaithful and wrapped up in a love affair with his legal assistant, Linda Kolkena. He and Kolkena were married last April.

On the morning of Nov. 5, they were found shot to death in the master bedroom of their Hillcrest home. The district attorney’s office contends that Elisabeth Broderick, angry that she had been shut out by her ex-husband and unable to win custody of their children, shot them in an act of vengeance.

Wells, in a long scenario describing the double slaying, said:

“The evidence strongly suggests that these killings were not killings in the heat of passion.

“These were killings that occurred at approximately 5:30 in the morning, at a time when the defendant had such knowledge and did know that her victims would be the most vulnerable, and that is sound asleep in bed.

“And I submit that anyone who can get out of bed the first thing in the morning, at the break of dawn, can load up a .38-caliber revolver with hollow-point bullets, can drive 20 or 30 minutes to the victims’ home, can sneak into their home, walk up the stairs, stand at the foot of their bed while they sleep, and shoot them dead is definitely a threat to the rest of this community.

“These were not wildly uncontrolled shots,” Wells added, noting that Linda was shot twice “square through” the heart and neck, and that Daniel was shot once “square through the middle of his back.”

“This was controlled and good shooting,” the prosecutor said.

But Wells said Elisabeth’s potential for violence does not stop there.

“The defendant has admitted to at least four people and perhaps more that she shot the victims in this case,” Wells said.

“And I have received numerous phone calls since this case was issued, several from past personal friends of the defendant. They are concerned about their own personal safety now should this defendant be released.

“Somewhere along the line, they have crossed Elisabeth Broderick, and she has expressed animosity toward them. And we know now what the consequences of that animosity can be.”

The prosecutor also presented a signed declaration, which the judge ordered sealed, from Larry Broderick, Daniel’s brother, expressing further concerns about the children’s safety should their mother be set free from the County Jail at Las Colinas.

“I talked to Kim, their eldest daughter, and she is concerned about her own personal safety should her mother be released,” Wells said.

“She is afraid, so afraid that she doesn’t even want to be here in court. Since this happened, she has refused to talk to her mother in jail and she feels that, because of that, her mother’s vengeance will be turned toward her. It’s even to the extent that Kim has left the state because she’s afraid of her mother.”

Wells said that Elisabeth would be a flight risk on bail because, in the past, she has “blatantly and intentionally and proudly violated” court orders dealing with the divorce case.

Wells said that William J. Dess, a psychologist hired during the divorce, had predicted that the animosity between Elisabeth and Daniel would erupt violently.

“His opinion was that the defendant is very bright, that she’s very cunning, and that she’s very persuasive,” Wells said. “But also that she’s very angry.”

Although Elisabeth Broderick did not address the court directly, she stood next to Wolf and wrote him a short note when Dess’ name was mentioned. Wolf, in turn, told the judge that Broderick does not believe Dess truly understood the situation between the couple.

“Dr. Dess never met her,” Wolf said. “He never dealt with her. He never evaluated her.”

Like the prosecutor, Wolf said he too has been deluged with phone calls and messages, these coming from supporters of Broderick who believe she was unfairly treated by her ex-spouse.

“I have in my office stacks of letters from people supportive of her and believing in her,” he said.

He flatly denied that she was a threat to anyone and accused Wells of fabricating threats made by Broderick in order to keep her from having an opportunity to make bail.

He also noted that Broderick surrendered herself to police several hours after the shootings.

“She turned herself in after she was free for a number of hours, and no one was in danger,” he said. “And she had contact with her children” during that time.

Wolf and Wells also squared off during the bail review hearing about the intense media attention in the case and accused each other of using the media to further their own cause and garner favorable publicity.

Wells criticized Wolf for hiring an advertising and public relations firm to issue a press release about the case. “I think that is entirely inappropriate,” she said. “I would like to have this case tried in a court of law.”

Wolf, on the other hand, implied that people acquainted with Daniel Broderick’s law practice and sympathetic with the prosecution have leaked the Brodericks’ sealed divorce records to The Times as a means of shoring up sympathy for the slain couple.

He said the divorce case file is prejudicial to his client because it only “tells Dan Broderick’s side.”

“It doesn’t talk about the horrible things Dan Broderick did to Elisabeth Broderick and the horrible things he did to his family,” Wolf said.