Broderick Jury Picked; Trial to Start Monday : Courts: Based on lengthy questionnaires, nine of 12 jurors said they already knew facts about the double murder case, and one offered an opinion about it.

The double murder trial of Elisabeth Anne (Betty) Broderick will begin Monday with a jury of six men and six women, with nine of the 12 saying they already know the facts of the case and one offering an opinion about it.

However, that juror said she “didn’t have all the details, and that could change my opinion,” according to jury questionnaires released Thursday after the panel was chosen.

The questionnaires, designed to elicit opinions on several other topics related to the case, also revealed that two jurors feel no circumstances can ever justify a killing, while seven said self-defense--a primary theme in Broderick’s defense--can be an excuse.

The forms indicate, too, that only one identified with any “ancestral or national heritage,” another--a 39-year-old man--”can’t stand” vulgar language by women and another who said that, among the last books she read, was the novel “Presumed Innocent.”

The public release of the forms signaled the end to a jury-selection process that took three weeks. San Diego Superior Court Judge Thomas Whelan has estimated that the trial, which will begin Monday with opening statements, will run for four weeks.

Broderick, 42, faces two counts of murder in the shooting deaths last Nov. 5 of her ex-husband, Daniel T. Broderick III, and his new wife, Linda Kolkena Broderick. They were shot as they slept in their Marston Hills home.

Daniel Broderick was a prominent medical malpractice lawyer and a former county bar president.

During and after a bitter divorce, Betty Broderick accused Daniel Broderick of using his legal influence to cheat her out of her fair share of his million-dollar income.

According to the questionnaire, three of the 87 potential witnesses in the case are San Diego judges--Thomas Ashworth, Vincent DiFiglia and Anthony Joseph.

Inclusion on the witness list does not, however, mean that any or all of the three judges will testify in the case. The questionnaire did not reveal whether defense attorney Jack Earley or Deputy Dist. Atty. Kerry Wells seeks their testimony.

Broderick confessed to the killings in a March interview in The Times. She called them a “desperate act of self-defense” against a man who wanted to control her.

Broderick, who has pleaded not guilty, has been held without bail at the County Jail in Las Colinas County since November. If convicted, she could be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

The case is the first high-profile trial to follow a ruling issued last month--by a state appellate court in San Diego--that deemed jury questionnaires part of the public record. Even though the forms may ask sensitive questions, the federal Constitution demands that the process of picking a jury be done in public, the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled.

The questionnaires have become increasingly popular in complex cases because of the wealth of information they provide. The form given to 117 prospective jurors in the Broderick case had 150 questions that covered 34 pages.

According to the questionnaires, the panel includes three 61-year-olds and only one person younger than 26. Nicole D. Prentice, 19, of Rancho Penasquitos, works part-time at a tanning salon.

The other 11 include an executive, a teacher, a flight attendant, a building contractor, a Caltrans employee, two civilian employees with the Navy, an industrial project manager, a Pacific Bell employee, a former preschool aide and a county pollution inspector.

Eloise M. Duffield, 61, of San Diego, the former preschool aide and one of the nine who said she had already heard of the case from newspapers or television, said these were the essential facts: “He left her for another woman and tried to keep her from their children, and she shot him and the ‘other’ woman, who was then his wife.”

Duffield was the one juror who admitted she already had an opinion. “What she did was wrong, but he treated her terribly,” she wrote on the questionnaire. “Of course, I don’t have all the details and that could change my opinion.”

The questionnaire asked whether jurors objected to vulgar language, and Michael A. Byrd, 39, of Rancho Bernardo, the project manager, said it was “OK for the locker room,” or when “joking with the guys at work, golf course, etc.”

“I really don’t prefer to hear vulgarity from or around women,” he said, adding actually that he “can’t stand” vulgarity from women.

According to court papers, Betty Broderick left vulgar messages about her husband’s new wife on Daniel Broderick’s answering machine.

The form asked whether jurors identify with “any ancestral or national heritage (such as French, English or Irish).” Daniel Broderick was Irish.

Only one juror, Linda M. Homan, 46, of San Carlos, the flight attendant, answered yes. She said she identifies with Hungarians.

One of the three alternate jurors, who were also chosen Thursday, also listed an identification. Roseanna E. Lippert, 35, said, “Spanish/Mexican.”

The questionnaire also delved into more sensitive material, asking jurors if they or anyone close had been involved in “a romantic relationship that ended bitterly.”

John E. Larmer, 37, of San Diego, the building contractor, answered that question with “too numerous.” He added, “It seems our society lends itself to bitter endings when romance goes wrong.”

He also called media coverage of the case a “circus.”

The form asked for a “general opinion of lawyers.” Byrd, whose wife is a legal secretary, said it was “not too high.” But Terilyn Burg, 44, of San Diego, one of the civilian Navy staffers, said attorneys “had a stressful job to do.”

Jurors were asked to rank, on a scale, the honesty level of the following: state legislators, criminal defense attorneys, prosecutors, police departments, police officers, newspaper reporters, civil lawyers and judges.

Judges consistently ranked at the top while reporters often ranked low. But alternate juror Michelle Temple, 23, of San Diego, a fast-food restaurant manager, said, “It’s hard to say. You have to have faith and hope for the best.”

The serious questions on the form generated a few light responses. Burg described when she drank alcohol: “A cold beer after mowing the lawn tastes good.”

Asked to describe the situation in his life in which he had been treated the most unfairly, Byrd said, “Not being allowed to smoke during jury duty nor being allowed to go outside to smoke.”

When they filled out the questionnaires, jurors were told that the forms would be made public.