TV’s Rush to Judgment : Broderick Murder Case Now a CBS Docudrama

SAN DIEGO —  At least, Betty Broderick says, the producers of a made-for-television movie about her life chose Meredith Baxter to portray her.

“It could have been Roseanne,” Broderick said from the Las Colinas Women’s Detention Facility, where she is serving time for murder.

The La Jolla socialite-turned-killer was not involved in the production of “A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story,” the CBS movie airing Sunday at 9 p.m.

Starring Baxter and Stephen Collins, it attempts to chronicle the events that led to Nov. 5, 1989, the morning that Broderick sneaked into the million-dollar home of her ex-husband, attorney Daniel Broderick, and shot and killed him and his new wife, Linda Kolkena Broderick, while they lay in bed.

“They have the nerve to call it by my name, how can they do that? They never even talked to Betty Broderick,” she said, punctuating her frustration with a short shrill scream.

As subjects of TV docudramas go, few carry the ambiguities and divisiveness of the Broderick case. Although there was no question that Betty shot and killed Dan and Linda, her attorneys argued that Dan emotionally abused Betty before, during and after the divorce, in effect driving her to murder.

The case sparked a wave of national publicity. “Hard Copy” did regular updates. ABC’s “20/20” did a lengthy segment. At least three books are in the works.

Judging by calls to radio talk shows and letters to newspapers, many see Broderick as something of a victim--especially divorced women, who empathize with her complaints about mistreatment at the hands of her lawyer ex-husband, the former head of the San Diego Bar Assn., who has been portrayed as cold, calculating and manipulative. Others argue that Betty is nothing more than a cold-blooded murderer.

Patchett Kaufman Entertainment, which has produced such television movies as “Howard Beach: Making the Case for Murder,” “The Lost Capone” and the “In the Line of Duty” series of films, began filming “A Woman Scorned” last October, a year after a jury was unable to decide whether Broderick was guilty of manslaughter or murder. The film was still in production last December when a second jury found her guilty of two counts of second-degree murder.

On Feb. 7, Broderick, 44, was sentenced to 32 years to life in prison, the maximum term possible. Her attorneys say they will appeal, claiming the judge unfairly excluded evidence.

“Somehow (the case) worked on everybody as a universal story of a marriage gone bad,” said executive producer Ken Kaufman. “As we got into it, we found it was far more complicated than that.”

The movie’s interpretation of those complications has already stirred many of the same passions that surrounded the case. When a rough cut was screened at a convention of critics in January, several commented that it made Betty unsympathetic.

“They should call it the ‘Dan Broderick Story,’ ” said Jack Earley, Betty’s attorney, after watching a preview copy of the film. “It’s not that it’s just so lopsided, it completely leaves out everything Dan ever did in this case.”

Robert Vaage, an attorney who worked with Dan for four years and was out with Dan and Linda the night before they died, had a completely different view after watching the film.

“My initial impression was that it was much more accurate than a lot of the written stories and television shows that have been done,” Vaage said.

Earley charges that the movie is simply a quickie effort slapped together to exploit the case. Most grievous, Earley said, was that the company never made an effort to contact him or Betty to seek their point of view.

“What reputable research person would not even make an attempt to call my office?” Earley said.

Betty Broderick talked to so many reporters that her version of events was well-documented, Kaufman replied. Baxter, who portrays her, said that she didn’t contact Broderick because she felt she understood Betty’s point of view and “she (Betty) also said she wouldn’t talk to anybody” connected to movie projects.

“A Woman Scorned” is based on a Los Angeles Times Magazine article by Times reporter Amy Wallace. The production hired Wallace as a consultant, and used court records and dozens of articles on the case for background, Kaufman said.

Also hired as consultants, Kaufman said, were Dan and Betty’s oldest daughter, Kim; Larry Broderick, Dan’s brother, and Sharon Blanchet, whom Kaufman described as a “friend of Betty.”

From jail, Betty said that Kim denied being part of the project. (Kim Broderick did not return several calls.) Sharon Blanchet was Dan and Linda’s friend, not hers, and both Larry and Sharon “have no idea what went on” because they weren’t around, Betty said.

Like most docudramas, those familiar with the case will be able to find faults with details of the production, from Betty ripping the phone out of the wall at the shooting scene and wrapping the cord around it, which her attorneys proved didn’t occur, to a scene that depicts Betty in a struggle with her daughter around a Christmas tree, which she claims never happened.

Other discrepancies are more glaring. Most noticeable is Baxter’s appearance, which never changes through the course of the film. At the time of the murder, Broderick was extremely overweight, which some say had a lot to do with her emotional and mental state. Dan repeatedly called her “old, fat and ugly,” her defenders say, although that is not shown in the movie.

As depicted in the movie, Dan Broderick is no saint. In one scene, his trusted secretary quits, imploring him to show more human understanding (which Vaage says never happened). But the character is far from the unfeeling, manipulative person painted by the Broderick defense team.

Betty’s contention from the start was that everything she did was a reaction to Dan’s cold and relentlessly harsh actions. He barraged her with legal maneuvers, had her found in contempt of court several times and turned the entire legal process in his favor, she said.

It was this scenario of abuse at the hands of Dan, coupled with Betty’s clear loss of self-esteem after the divorce, that captured the sympathy of some parts of the public.

“A Woman Scorned” steers clear of the debate, stopping far short of portraying Dan Broderick as the instigator of events. Among other things, the production dances around the evidence that suggests Dan was having an affair with Linda before breaking up with Betty.

“I felt convinced he was having an affair, but because it was never substantiated in the trial we couldn’t just editorialize,” Baxter said.

Earley argues that showing Dan as a devoted family man--attending soccer games and working with a Cub Scout troop--is completely false. For example, Earley says, the movie shows Dan Broderick getting into an argument with one of his daughters, but doesn’t mention that he disowned her and cut her out of his will.

“What bothers me is that they had so many issues and they completely eliminated any discussion of them,” Earley said.

From the opposite perspective, Vaage said that he was disappointed that the film didn’t do enough to show what a “gentleman” Dan was, “not only a fine lawyer, but a man of honor and integrity.” He wishes the film had shown more about the way Betty “used the children to punish Dan.”

But he believes “A Woman Scorned” presents the reality of the case.

“I hope this will dispel some of the myths about this, the myth that she was an abused and battered wife,” Vaage said. “She constantly harassed him.”

Kaufman said that research found Dan to be far from the ogre presented by Earley. Those who criticize “A Woman Scorned” as anti-Betty, Kaufman pointed out, should note that the story is told from Betty’s perspective, that Baxter’s narration provides a “balance,” since she is “explaining her behavior” throughout the movie.

“Betty’s people created a certain view of the world,” Kaufman said. “At first blush, Betty is a symbol. But as time went on we found that her view of the world is not the way it happened.”

Above all else, “one thing is inescapable,” Kaufman said. “Betty Broderick left her house one morning and killed two people.”