Housekeeper Testifies in Broderick Murder Trial

The woman whom Elisabeth Anne (Betty) Broderick is accused of killing entered the defendant’s La Jolla home twice “without permission” and took personal documents from her bedroom, Broderick’s former housekeeper testified Thursday.

In the first full day of testimony from defense witnesses in Broderick’s murder trial, housekeeper Maria Montez said the incidents occurred in the spring of 1989, several months before Daniel T. Broderick III and his new wife, Linda Kolkena Broderick, were shot to death in the bedroom of their Marston Hills home.

Montez testified that when she entered the home, Linda Broderick “was already inside Mrs. Broderick’s bedroom. When I heard noises, I said, ‘Hello, is anybody in the house?’ And she said, ‘It’s me. I’m a friend of Betty’s. I came to see the house.’ ”

Speaking through an interpreter, Montez testified that Linda Broderick had disturbed “some documents” in Elisabeth Broderick’s bedroom, “but I don’t know what she took.” She said Linda Broderick came back “four to five hours later” and returned the documents.

Linda Broderick married Daniel Broderick, a prominent medical malpractice attorney and past president of the San Diego County Bar Assn., in the spring of 1989. They were found dead Nov. 5, 1989.