Second Broderick Trial Is Set to Begin Aug. 5

La Jolla socialite Elisabeth Anne (Betty) Broderick’s second murder trial will begin Aug. 5, a San Diego Superior Court judge ordered Wednesday.

Judge Thomas Whelan also said he wants to know by late June if Broderick and her defense team are interested in moving the trial out of the county. Defense attorney Jack Earley said after the hearing that he would “prefer to stay in San Diego” but is considering a change because the case has generated so much publicity.

He also said he remains interested in settling the case before a second trial. Deputy Dist. Atty. Kerry Wells, the prosecutor in the case, who also has indicated an interest in a settlement, declined to comment.

Broderick, 43, is charged with two counts of murder in the Nov. 5, 1989, shooting deaths of her ex-husband, Daniel T. Broderick III, 44, 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. She has remained at the Las Colinas Jail in Santee since she surrendered to authorities the day of the killings.

Whelan, who presided over the first trial, also has been tabbed to hear the second. Wells and Earley remain the lawyers on the case, although Earley is now being paid by San Diego County taxpayers to handle Broderick’s defense because the first trial drained her of hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings.

In another development Wednesday, Whelan denied a renewed bid by Wells to force Broderick to turn over certain medical records. Repeating the reason he gave at a hearing last month, Whelan said requiring her to produce records she did not want to give up would violate Broderick’s constitutional right to remain silent.