San Diego
A judge refused Friday a media request to open court records documenting the divorce between Daniel T. Broderick III and Elisabeth (Betty) Broderick.
Superior Court Judge Michael I. Greer declined to unseal the records, saying the potential for any harm to the Brodericks’ four children outweighed any public interest in the nine file folders of documents.
Greer said he saw the case the same way San Diego Superior Court Judge William J. Howatt, Jr.--who originally ordered the records closed last January--saw it. Howatt said in sealing the files that there was a “clear and present” danger the children would be “adversely and irrevocably harmed” if materials in the records were made public.
The request was initiated by the Copley Press, which publishes the San Diego Union and the San Diego Tribune. A lawyer for the newspapers, Gregory D. Roper, said he was not certain whether they would appeal Greer’s ruling.
Betty Broderick is accused of murdering her ex-husband, Daniel, and his new wife, Linda Kolkena Broderick, in the bedroom of their Hillcrest home Nov. 5. She has pleaded not guilty.
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