D.A. Rejects Broderick Attempt to Plea-Bargain a 20-Year Term

La Jolla socialite Elisabeth Anne (Betty) Broderick offered a plea bargain in the shooting deaths of her ex-husband and new wife that would have kept her behind bars for a 20-year prison term, but prosecutors turned the deal down, the lawyers in the case said Tuesday.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Kerry Wells, the lead prosecutor, said the offer was rejected because it did not include a plea to murder. Instead, Wells said, Betty Broderick offered to plead guilty to charges of assault, burglary and kidnaping, all of which would be combined to fashion a total sentence of 20 years.

Newport Beach lawyer Jack Earley, Broderick’s attorney, said she sought to save her children from testifying again at a second trial scheduled to begin Aug. 5 and would have pleaded guilty to “whatever we could do to get it (the sentence) up that high.”

The offer was made and rejected Monday, the lawyers said. It marked the latest turn in a case that has intrigued San Diego, been featured in lengthy magazine stories and is the focus of at least one forthcoming book and a made-for-TV movie.

Betty Broderick, 43, is charged with two counts of murder in the Nov. 5, 1989, shooting deaths of her ex-husband, Daniel T. Broderick III, and his wife, Linda Kolkena Broderick, 28.

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. It attracted so much attention that parts of it were broadcast live over a San Diego television station.

She has remained at the Las Colinas Jail in Santee since she surrendered to authorities the day of the killings.

Betty Broderick told The Times last month in a telephone interview from jail that she had begun pondering a deal with prosecutors. She said jail is soothing, but she misses her four children so fiercely that she wants to be able to dream of the date when she will be free with them again.

Earley said Broderick authorized him to make the offer in hopes of sparing her children from testifying at the second trial. The two older children, college-age daughters Kim and Lee, testified at the first trial. It is uncertain whether the younger two, 12- and 15-year-old sons Rhett and Danny, would also testify at the second trial.

Earley also said a deal would save taxpayers the expense of a second trial. The intense publicity the case has generated might prompt a second trial to be moved out of San Diego, he said.

Prosecutors “didn’t feel those were reasons to dispose of the case for 20 years,” Earley said.

A 20-year term would make Betty Broderick eligible for parole after about 14 years, Earley said.

Prosecutors have said they will not seek the death penalty in Betty Broderick’s case. In a non-capital case, the sentence for first-degree murder is 25 years to life. For second degree, it is 15 years to life. Manslaughter sentences range from two to 11 years.

“My concern is that I don’t know if there will be a hung jury a number of times,” Earley said. “There seems to be a strong division among jurors (in the first trial) about how they viewed the case.

“Eventually,” Earley said, “that works in Elisabeth Broderick’s favor, and the offer, considering what it does to her family and her children in putting it behind them, was more than fair.”

Wells said that the offer, rejected officially by Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller, just missed the point.

“What’s of interest here is that Elisabeth Broderick committed murder,” Wells said. “Basically, unless she’s willing to plead guilty to murder, other charges--including burglary, assault, (kidnaping)--are all trumped-up charges. That’s not seeking justice.

“If she’s guilty of something, she ought to be guilty of what she did,” Wells said. “Let’s not put charges together to put years together. That’s not the way we work.”

Earley said the offer was based on charges that Wells has alleged are part of the case. For instance, Wells argued at the first trial that Betty Broderick went into her ex-husband’s house and took things that belonged to him, Earley said. That’s burglary, he said.

Earley added that Betty Broderick is “willing just to plead to the two manslaughters, if it’s ‘trumped-up charges’ that bother her,” referring to prosecutor Wells.

Miller said Tuesday, however, that a plea to manslaughter would not do. He said he “would not want to discuss” whether he would accept a deal in which Betty Broderick pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

“I think it is a murder case, and that’s our objective, to obtain a conviction of murder,” Miller said.

“All I can say is it’s our intention to take the matter to trial. It’s my view that the case should be tried.”

Miller said prosecutors have received no pressure from family or friends of Daniel Broderick to refrain from a plea bargain. “None whatsoever,” he said.