Expert Witness in Broderick Trial Won’t Testify : Courts: Marriage counselor hired by the defense withdraws because of restrictions imposed by judge.

A marriage and family counselor hired to testify in the second murder trial of Elisabeth Anne (Betty) Broderick said Wednesday that he and Broderick’s attorney agreed to withdraw his testimony, which he said had been so restricted that it had “lost its meaning.”

Daniel J. Sonkin, who has a private practice in Sausalito, Calif., and who often testifies as a paid expert witness specializing in family violence, made his remarks at a press conference outside the courtroom Wednesday morning.

Defense attorney Jack Earley and the two prosecutors had spent most of Tuesday huddled in private session with Superior Court Judge Thomas J. Whelan.

Sonkin, who was present at the time, said the issue being discussed was whether he should testify at all, although he did appear at last year’s trial without restriction. He said that what the defense could and couldn’t ask was then negotiated “line by line.”

“They went through every single question that Mr. Earley was going to ask me, which was a process I’ve never experienced in the 12 years I’ve been doing expert testimony,” Sonkin said. “The district attorney had access to every question that I was going to be asked and knew ahead of time exactly how to cross-examine me.”

It is Sonkin’s contention that Broderick, 44, was a victim of “physical, sexual and psychological abuse” through much of her 16-year marriage to medical malpractice attorney Daniel T. Broderick III, testimony that Sonkin gave in last year’s trial, which ended in a hung jury.

Broderick is accused of murdering Daniel Broderick, 44, and his second wife, Linda Kolkena Broderick, 28, in the bedroom of their Marston Hills home on the morning of Nov. 5, 1989. Last year, 10 jurors favored a murder conviction, and two held out for manslaughter.

The prosecution is seeking a first-degree murder conviction and life sentence without parole. It says the couple were “executed” as they “lay helpless in their sleep.”

The defense contends that Broderick was driven to near-insanity by her ex-husband’s actions during a bitter divorce and custody dispute, and that she drove to the home intending only to kill herself.

Sonkin said that he asked Earley if he could withdraw because his testimony “was getting more and more limited. By the end of it all, I could say that Mrs. Broderick was simply an emotionally abused woman.”

“That was not really the complete story, and it was not fair to trivialize the issue of battered women in that way,” he said.

In the portions of a hearing Monday that was open to the press, Deputy Dist. Atty. Wells said there was no compelling evidence to indicate that Daniel Broderick had been guilty of sexual or physical abuse.

Elisabeth Broderick testified that, during her marriage, her husband had occasionally hit her and once had even given her a black eye before a La Jolla charity function.

Evangeline Burt, one of numerous women who testified Wednesday on Broderick’s behalf, said that, in 1978, the defendant showed up at the Blackstone Ball, an annual fund-raiser of the bar association, with a black eye.

“It was obvious that Betty was upset,” said Burt, a friend of Elisabeth Broderick’s.

Maryanne Kunkle, a teacher at Francis Parker School, which the four Broderick children attended, testified that, although she was not the custodial parent, Elisabeth Broderick was “very much” involved in school activities and was always reachable if problems arose.

Asked if the same could be said of Daniel Broderick, Kunkle replied, “Not at all.”

The defense is expected to close its case today.