Broderick Says Ex-Husband Isolated Her From Children

Elisabeth Anne (Betty) Broderick, accused of killing her former husband and his second wife, testified Thursday she became increasingly frustrated by Daniel Broderick’s attempts to isolate her from their children.

During cross-examination in her double-murder trial, Broderick said that her ex-husband, an attorney, had installed an answering machine in his home that she said was used to intercept her calls to the four children.

Her frustration at being unable to speak to the children, she said, drove her to leave obscene messages whenever she called and got the tape.

“It was Dan putting the machine on to keep me from getting to the kids. That was intended to harass me,” Broderick said.

She said she became particularly agitated when the answering tape was in the voice of Linda Kolkena, the legal assistant Daniel Broderick later married.

Betty Broderick has pleaded innocent to the Nov. 5, 1989, killings of Daniel Broderick and Linda Kolkena Broderick. The couple were fatally shot in the bedroom of their Hillcrest home.

During her third day on the stand, Broderick also testified that after their separation, Dan Broderick made every effort to stay away from her.

“From the day he walked out, Mr. Broderick didn’t want to have any contact with me,” Broderick testified.

When he dropped off their children at her home for visits, Broderick said, he would call from the car and ask that the children wait on the sidewalk.

She said calls she made in which she threatened Daniel with various legal actions became her only recourse in the couple’s protracted divorce, which ended a 16-year marriage.

“That was only a little cheap threat that I could throw at him,” she said. “I had no leverage to make Dan settle with me.”

On Wednesday, Broderick testified that her husband had physically abused her. But during a terse cross-examination by Deputy Dist. Atty. Kerry Wells, she balked when asked to name dates on which Daniel Broderick had hit her.

Wells asked her specifically about her testimony that Daniel Broderick had once given her a black eye.

“I don’t remember,” she said. “It wasn’t that big a deal.”

Wells also asked Betty Broderick about a failed suicide attempt in November, 1983.

Broderick earlier said she had cut her wrists and taken several pills. She said Thursday that Daniel Broderick, a medical malpractice attorney who also graduated from medical school, had treated her wounds.

Wells then asked to see Broderick’s wrist to see if she had any scars.

After examining her arms, Wells said she didn’t see anything. Broderick’s attorney protested Wells’ statement, prompting the judge to suggest that Broderick let the jury see her arms.

The jurors then stood as Broderick displayed her wrists to panel members.

Prosecutors have argued that Broderick killed the couple out of hate and revenge after a bitter divorce and custody battle.

Broderick’s attorney, Jack Earley, however, is trying to portray Daniel Broderick as a selfish, manipulative, abusive and alcoholic husband who hired Kolkena, then began having an affair with her while trying to persuade Betty Broderick that she was crazy and no longer appealing to him.

The couple were divorced in 1986 and battled for the next three years over the custody of their two young sons, Danny and Rhett, 13 and 10 at the time of the slayings.