Broderick Can Shield Certain Medical Records, Judge Says

A San Diego Superior Court judge Thursday denied a prosecution bid to force La Jolla socialite Elisabeth Anne (Betty) Broderick to turn over certain medical records, saying it would violate her constitutional rights to produce data she didn’t want to give up.

Judge Thomas Whelan ruled that Broderick, accused of the murders of her ex-husband and his second wife, had a constitutional right to keep confidential those records produced after visits to doctors who did not testify at her first trial--much the same as the familiar right to remain silent.

The brief hearing marked one of the preliminary skirmishes between prosecutors and Broderick’s defense team as the two camps, studying the first trial, gear up for a second trial scheduled to begin in August.

Broderick, 43, faces two charges of murder in the Nov. 5, 1989, shooting deaths of her ex-husband, Daniel T. Broderick III, and his new wife, Linda Kolkena Broderick.

Daniel Broderick was a prominent medical malpractice attorney and a former president of the San Diego County Bar Assn. Linda Kolkena Broderick was his office assistant.

Betty Broderick’s first trial ended last Nov. 20 in a hung jury. She has remained at the Las Colinas Jail in Santee since she surrendered to authorities the day of the killings.

The next hearing in the case is set for March 11, when Whelan is due to ask Deputy Dist. Atty. Kerry Wells, the prosecutor in the case, and Jack Earley, Betty Broderick’s Newport Beach-based defense attorney, whether an August trial date is likely. Earley has said his busy schedule needs to be cleared to ensure an August date.

Earley, meanwhile, has asked the California Supreme Court to review his request to bar Broderick’s retrial on first-degree murder charges.

He maintains that, had the jury received proper instructions from Whelan, it would have eliminated the first-degree charge. Last month, the 4th District Court of Appeal rejected that claim.