Broderick May Lose Lawyer Over Financial Problems

Stating that his client is indigent and can no longer afford his services, the defense lawyer representing Elisabeth Anne (Betty) Broderick said Monday that the court will decide on Thursday whether he remains her attorney or a public defender is appointed.

Newport Beach trial lawyer Jack Earley appeared Monday with Broderick in San Diego Superior Court and said afterward that she plans to formally request Thursday that he remain her attorney, with county taxpayers paying for his services.

Deputy public defender Michael Roake said he may be appointed Broderick’s attorney, if the amount of money offered is not suitable to Earley.

“She wants me to remain her attorney,” Earley said. “She has her trust in me, and it’s hard for her to have trust in any attorney.”

Broderick has admitted killing her ex-husband, noted medical malpractice lawyer Daniel T. Broderick III, and his second wife and onetime legal assistant, Linda Kolkena Broderick, in the bedroom of their Marston Hills home on Nov. 5, 1989.

Her first trial ended in a hung jury on Nov. 20. She has remained in jail in the Las Colinas Jail in Santee since the killings. Last week, Judge Thomas J. Whelan denied bail for Broderick and refused to dismiss a first-degree murder as a possible verdict in a retrial.

Earley said it would be difficult to remain as Broderick’s attorney without “the proper compensation.” He said the county pays $60 an hour to public defenders, a sum he finds too low, although he wishes to remain her attorney.

He said the appointment of a new attorney would cost the county several hundred thousand dollars, because of the months of preparation the case would require for a new lawyer.

He said the county pays $75 an hour to public defenders in death-penalty cases. Although the death penalty has been eliminated as an option in this case, Earley said Broderick’s case is “as emotional and time-consuming” as any involving capital punishment.

“For us to ask for that rate or a little more doesn’t seem outrageous,” Earley said.

Earley said he ordinarily charges clients $150 to $250 an hour.