CA v. BETTY BRODERICK (1991): Confesses on the Stand

during the two years I was there? I seemed to be happy I seemed to be sad I seemed to be upset if the deputy if I appeared in a certain way before Deputy Woods at a certain time I'm sure that during certain times I was there I seemed to be happy, but is it possible I didn't know why in connection with the murder of dan and linda

broderick

you seemed happy. no, how about dr. Robinson, the psychiatrist who was there in law school, in this chat? I don't even know dr. robinson is a black gentleman he often wears a cap on his head i have never met dr. robertson i have never seen a man of that description well, you have indicated that at times you have been happy in prison, in fact, you have given an interview to alan abrahamson where you told him that you wanted the world to know how happy you were in prison jail, right?

Do you remember doing that? I don't know if those were my words. Do you remember telling him that you wanted everyone to know? that you were doing fabulously well that it has been wonderful prison is a country club no because I was never in prison I wouldn't have said that prison was a country club you would have said that prison is a country club a tennis court swimming pool without object is irrelevant sustained would you have told him something about the fact that being in jail was an early retirement? I don't know, that's yes or no, maybe you would have told him that you don't have to worry about getting your car fixed.

I can read I can write I can converse with people without responsibilities there was a period of time after the first one I just made you made that statement which may have been and would have been in approximately March

1991

, is that okay with you? Yes. It would be in the period that I was trying to tell you I want to go back and ask you some questions about some of the things that you said when you were describing your early years of marriage to Mr. Broderick I'm not going to spend too much time on it, you testified that during the time you were in the law school, when dan

broderick

was in law school, you described an apartment that you lived in and you described this very ugly, rotten place. that you had to live on the outskirts of Finger Cambridge, right, you didn't tell us that during your second and third years of law school you moved to a very nice suburb in Marlborough and lived in a very nice apartment. no, I said that objection that is argumentative, I said it had to do with getting a car, remember, okay, because we didn't have a car at the beginning and I said we got a car and then we moved and during the second, second and third. year then you lived in a very nice apartment complex in a very nice suburb in exactly different places because we had to move in the summer to go to Los Angeles and come back to a different place two different apartment complexes in Marlborough Massachusetts right and that Was it about 40 miles from Cambridge?

Dan had to ride about 40 miles every day on his motorcycle to law school so you and the kids could get a nice tan. Yeah, I remember I said we had an apartment upstairs. terrain, okay and during that time you had indicated it and I you can obviously correct me if I'm wrong, but you indicated that you were totally isolated from people when you lived during those years in law school, right, you didn't say it so well? types of people there were other people living in the apartments adjacent to ours I didn't know their names and I didn't spend time with them and I never met them so I wasn't there physically there were other people there, no You don't know them, you testified that you were isolated from yourself of thousands of people during the second third year of law school.

I felt isolated, yes, didn't you live very close to a couple of good friends? from a university who came and visited you almost every weekend, who was a friend of Dan and his wife, yes, we knew those James McCulloch and Sandy McAuliffe, they were good friends of yours too, right?, they became friends, yes, and they would simply come to visit you. Every weekend you would visit Dan and Jiggs would babysit so you and Sandy could go shopping together. Now you said that one of the things you really hoped to do after you got married was one of the The goal you had was to get to Europe, okay, and you got to Europe in 1981.

You were able to take a trip to Europe with Dan Right and then in 1983, you were able to take another trip to Europe with Dan Right. You achieved those goals in terms of the things you were waiting for. When was it that you took the Caribbean cruise with Dan Dan and I never took a Caribbean cruise? Did you ever go to the Caribbean with Dan? We went to the Caribbean on our honeymoon to St. Thomas, did you go on a trip to the Bahamas in the 1980s? No, how about a trip to Cancun? joined Warner's, yeah, and when was that trip to Allison, when she had two broken arms, so whenever we can put that in there, it was in the late '70s, no, it would have been after Rhett was born, so they were 80 or 81.

He said you described the fact that Dan Broderick didn't let you get involved in financial decisions and that he was very dictatorial about it. Isn't it true that you previously said that you happily let him make all the decisions? I've always said yes, you said not being involved in money saved me from a lot of anxiety, saved me from a lot of worry, that's exactly right, so they argued with that agreement when we got married, okay, so it wasn't like that. That Dan was being dictatorial and telling you that you couldn't have anything to do with the finances, it was something you wanted him to take care of, well I never asked him to do it, no, it was an unspoken agreement in our From the first On the day of marriage, he took care of the rent and the insurance and all that stuff, and that's what he called it, you know, women's work and men's work, I mean, the man earned the salary and paid the bills and The woman was in charge of the food. and the clothes and the children in the house and the two will never meet.

I had nothing to do with money and he never had anything to do with the clothes or the children or the food, which was a woman's job but I didn't argue with him. that agreement and you were happy with that agreement, that was our agreement and it worked well for a long time. Yeah, I didn't argue about that. You also indicated that Dan had always been an extremely hard worker, so yes, always since the beginning of medical school, law school, everything is fine, and you describe that he basically worked seven days and nights a week, He would fall asleep at night with a legal file on his chest and wake up in the morning and do it again, absolutely the same. when he was a student he worked very hard, so during the marriage he wasn't wasting your money, he wasn't losing it in Las Vegas, he wasn't a womanizer, he was supporting you, the kids and the family, yes we both work. very hard and we did it without much for many years so that he could get his yes, those are all correct statements that you stated recently this morning.

I think about how upset he was because he couldn't realize some of the things you had wanted, for example, the boat and the piano, I mean, those are all the things you had before the separation, right, those weren't the ones. things that I wanted, those were in Dan's marriage meeting as the list of things that he wanted as possessions and materials. goals, I think he called them and you talked about that in 1981, which would have been four years before you broke up, basically at that time you had an unlimited budget, no, no, no, 81. That was 83. 81 is the testimony. that was the first year we had money and by 82 we had good money and by 83 between 81 and 83 by 83 we had tons of money so between 81 and 83 is when we started getting money before that we didn't have any money to speak of in 1979 when dan broderick made 82,000 a year we had no money to speak of when he was alone and we and he had corporate or personal expenses in 1979 when his personal income was 82,000 a year year you are indicating that you had no money to spend, right?

She would not have known what his income was before cross-examination. I would like to see documents that support this. He has, he has discussions that you were able to participate in. show time so, in fact, it was in 1979 when you put a pool in the house on the coral reef, right, yeah, we took out another mortgage on the house to do that, I think we did, and didn't you tell Jeanette Dewise, who did you also interview? that in 1981 you felt like you had an unlimited budget you had a closet full of two thousand dollar dresses you had a ten thousand dollar formal dress that she had bought dan when did she buy you dan the links of a jacket?

I do not remember. I don't remember well, so it could have been in that period of time, but what you said before was 80 after 83, yes I thought I had always said the same thing 81 we started to have money, that's why we went to Europe, but We went to Europe and we change houses and get you train passes. It wasn't what you'd call it. I under

stand

that you have explained it. So what you just said I told someone in 81 is incorrect. That is not right. He did not have. those things in 81. here and I can have the following exhibit from marcus people in order 66 66 a two page document that indicates the gross income of the opponent dan broderick and it was a good project for the period from 1969 to 1984, do you remember that I showed this document? during the course of the divorce trial not summarizing income is not ok eh, did you put your income on your income tax reports?

I had nothing to do with income taxes if Dan put something of mine in there and then Dan did it, but I didn't. I don't file income taxes separately, why not take a look? Let's take a look at those numbers and tell me if you think they are accurate numbers regarding income Dan made this list correctly. This was a list that was presented as evidence and I would just like you to tell me if you think they are accurate enough. I would have no way of knowing. I had no way of knowing how much money you made.

Well, I think my job as a teacher was seven thousand dollars a year. so he came here in '69, I made six thousand two hundred, so that's about 1970, Jordan, I don't know how he could have done it, I have no idea, I don't know how he came up with a figure of what I did babysitting because I never kept records, okay, but at first it looks good, you have described your marriage to many different people over the years, over the course of what years, over the course of my life, yes, over the course of in your life during the course of your separation, you have made many statements to different people about your marriage after the separation and, for example, you have told people like Mr.

Hargraves, who represented you, that your marriage to Dan was the most ideal. Of some couple that you were very happy with, happy with dan, did you make that statement to Mr. Hardgrade on occasion? Yes, I believed it and you told Dr. Goldsband that we had a wonderful marriage. That is what I thought. I thought we did well. You told Dr. Robinson that we had an ideal marriage until Linda came along. Yes, I'm probably Dr. Ron, but I don't remember meeting him. Alright. Did you tell Dr. Defrancesca that you were always happy and had a happy marriage until Linda came along?

I would have probably said that, when was it? I am a little confused. When did you start describing your marriage as rotten from the beginning? It was exactly at the moment you are when we parted ways. I then withdrew my consent to Dan Broderick was in control of everything up to that point, I fully consented to our marriage with the agreement that he was in charge of everything and when he apologized, maybe you misunderstood my question when you spoke to the gang of the Dr. Gold, for example. That was in 1990, after you killed Dan and Linda Broderick and when he asked you to describe the marriage, you described it as a wonderful marriage, right, I thought it wasn't a very unequally structured marriage, but I stuck with it and I was happy. when it was like that, well, how come on other occasions you described to other people that the marriage was a disaster from day one?

Dan was a control freak and he had control in his marriage while I didn't. fight, it was fine for me and what, but we are talking about after the separation, let's say you already separated, you already know what you think about marriage when you talk to dr. goldsband when they talk to Mr. Hargraves during the divorce when You talked to Dr. Francesca When you talked to Dr. Robinson, you described your marriage as a wonderful ideal marriage, as long as it worked, it was, as long as I followed this ridiculous plan the one I was in, it worked, it didn't. fair and rate that at all when you talk to these people you said it was a wonderful ideal marriage until linda came along with right goals, didn't you also write in your book that the marriage was a disaster from day one, looking back? the point of view from which I wrote the book in 1988 and I think I already testified on the ski trip when I was suicidal and depressed, I wrote that book as a memoir in case I committed suicide so my children would know what happened. and I was very angry at that time because it's 88 I still don't have a deal, they've put me through everything and it wasn't in 1986used for this.

What I have a problem with is when and at what point Dan stopped taking the money out of a check. I was telling me Mrs. Broderick, we're not talking about that, we're talking about how much money you spent in 1986 based on the checks that you wrote and if you want to dispute that, okay, I ask you to take a look at that and if we can, um, yes. you need to take some time to look at it, we can, we can do it, your honor, and I'm going to object, you are asked to respond, she already explained that she was not writing the mortgage checks right with the The district attorney's inference there are some mortgage checks over there.

I don't know, she can take the time to look at them and give an answer. Alright? Can we discuss this a little? Let's not do it. talk about the mortgage checks we will take them let's talk about the master part of that page right there here excuse me for a minute shows for example the checks that were paid for your telephone bill your gas and electricity your water your service pool your gardener your food your maid no, no, it doesn't say that look, this column says average monthly cost and somehow you got an average and then you would have to multiply that figure by 12 to get that figure, these are not real expenses that I know, unless it's somewhere, well, let's look at full service number 19.

Doesn't a check give the date it was written January 6th and the total amount? There is a total below for everyone. of those payments that you made that year for the pool service the total is 936 dollars on the front where you make a summary it puts the exact amount of 936 dollars that you paid for a pool service now go ahead and do that based on your checks for each of these and end with this total are you sure? you're sure? Well if that's what it says and you're sure that's what it says I'll believe it Did you spend 37,000 on clothes in 1986?

I know and if I spent it it could have been on credit cards I didn't pay for. Does that say that these are things actually paid for or that these things were purchased and not paid for? And I will believe everything you tell me. I will look at clothing check number 3329 dated January 6th payable to j magnan amount 50 okay, okay, now are you indicating that it is not a check that you wrote? No, what I'm saying is that if that's what he says, I'd leave every word, but I couldn't have agreed before and until you show me things right, so look here at the clothes and all the checks that you paid and that you wrote and some of these things are not right, go ahead, a lot of these things are not clothes now. any store he has there like neiman marcus is bedding, and nordstrom is probably closed, but I magnin had other departments and saks has other departments and I told you I had to buy everything for this house so he wouldn't have I knew if those were closed because of the name of the store, okay and oxen, he had hardly ever bought clothes from bullets, so it must have been something else the last time he testified he had no problem with this statement when I asked him if you spent 37,000 in clothing you said sure your objection of honor sustained statement do you have something to request for our collection go ahead my question is: do you dispute these checks and whether they were expenses or checks that you were issuing?

If so, we will receive the original checks, if not, we can present this if you think that's what's not appropriate, okay, you know, it's all there, say it's a check, let me handle it this way, She's Broderick, she can't. testify, you have to testify, so just tell him if you think those are exact copies of your checks or not, if you question those copies, just tell him, can I ask you a question? No, that's not appropriate. All figures are based on checks. mine, you can't ask a question if you want to see if they are your checks, you have the right to do that, if there are check numbers there, they are my checks, okay, take a look and tell me.

If there's something in there that you don't think is attributable to you writing a check, you would just have to look at it here's a page that says just look at it, take care of yourself Mr. Rodriguez, there's something in there that you don't agree with but then the letter is fine now, could you come here? This is a page that does not have check numbers. It says February March April May June places on my credit cards and where I made a purchase and the purchase amount on a credit card doesn't say I paid for it, are you lying that you made that purchase with that credit card?

No, but I am disputing that I paid this amount of money, so what you are indicating is that I had tremendous debts. On credit cards, did you spend 220,000 in 1986? I can't verify that without studying this more. I'm sorry. I know Mr. Hargreaves wanted to increase my expenses so he could get me the support he thought he should get. astronomical amount and I didn't know about these things when he did this and I was already fired when this was done and here here here are checks payable to credit cards but not the full amount, you know, the payments are not the full amount, so This isn't just checks that I wrote, there are pages and pages here of federal big American imperial savings charges on credit cards that were actually underpaid, but were in fact charged.

You didn't write checks to make those payments. pages like this about credit card payments credit card payments I wrote checks to make credit card payments if I owed ten thousand dollars on a credit card I only had to make a correct payment of a few hundred dollars and that's what's listed here under the check number, the check number and the payment you made successfully, but also on these pages where it's a month, not a check number, see on the right, maybe June, July , April, those are credit card charges, they're not, they haven't been paid, okay? So you are indicating that you made some charges here that you never paid much for and the figure you came up with was for everything I bought but not everything I paid for.

I'm going to leave this with you and I want you to do it. when we take a break, if you take a look at all the checks and if there are any disputes with the number of checks that you wrote, you can let me know that I'm not disputing the checks that are here, but it's not just the checks. Here is the other category, as everyone will see when you submit it. Well, in August of 1985 you indicated that Dan Broderick sat down with you and prepared a budget and indicated that he was going to pay you nine thousand dollars a month in child support.

I thought it was October. Do you think it's not October? Oh, sorry, I thought it was October. Well, do you remember writing about it in your book and indicating that it was in August? I'm just confused if it's August. It was August okay it was my memory it was October and he told me that he was going to make voluntary support payments of 9,000 a month correct yes and in addition to that he was paying income tax health insurance house taxes home insurance the car payment car insurance and several other things yes it is true that he was making those payments without a court order there was no court order requiring him to do it correctly there were no brokers of any kind when we did the budgeting thing there was no divorce no There was no you had not been separated since February 1985. yes correct February March April May June July August so we are talking about being separated for six months and this is a time when he wanted you to take some responsibility for paying your own bills well that is what he said right and that was because he was telling you that the marriage was over that he wouldn't come back even though you continued to refuse to accept that that's not what he ever said no because he was still lying about linda if you say that it's august and if we're going to continue it was august he was still lying about linda who was still lying about everything so no he didn't say he just wanted me to reduce his burden of paying my bills you're saying he was planning on getting back together with you in that moment, how could I know?

I mean, he didn't say anything about it, it wasn't a meeting about that, it was a meeting about what he wanted to give. certain amount of money to start paying my own bills and that he explained to her that this was because he was filing for divorce, not at all. Don't you remember him testifying in the divorce trial that he had told you over and over again that this was the case? it's over and that you refused to accept it that it's over that in those words that it's over maybe not those words but but in the sense that the marriage is over he wasn't going to move to caia de cielo with that's where I'm going to object present a testimony in 89 when he has a difference of motive that is sustained you have a transcript that you want to show or update your memory you can do it otherwise I don't think she had any problem with her memory that was not the objection well, yes you want to show him what he testified to see refresh his memory, go ahead, do you have a problem with your memory of him testifying what he testified in 89 is it not appropriate to grant it to you at this time refresh his memory? of what he said in 85.

So that's all I'm letting you ask so far, sir technically because there was no court order, I didn't have to pay him anything at that time, technically that's correct and then in December of 1986, there was a court order from napoleon jones to increase his support to 12,500 right, i think so, it may have been january, that's when he was paying nine thousand dollars a month, that was over a hundred thousand dollars a year, that's a hundred and eight thousand dollars a year. right, I don't think he ever received nine thousand a month, it was his budget with the house payment when he took off the house payment and other bills that he said were mine, like those with the stickers that we saw that he said he was paying that that was mine, I never got even half of the nine thousand dollars, well the bills were supposed to be included in what you would do if he paid your truth, but that was included in the nine thousand dollar support, but I didn't get the nine thousand He started at the top of the page with that figure of nine thousand dollars, but it never reached me.

He made the payments correctly and would have told me that he had decided on nine thousand dollars a month, which is a hundred thousand dollars a year and if that was going to come out of his mortgage, his gas, his electricity and everything else, that's what he expected me to do. would accept. Yes, he misses Wells, but make it a good time. Check out our afternoon recess. I'm sure that's fine, ladies and gentlemen. We will take our afternoon break at this time We will be invisible tomorrow morning Please remember the warning not to discuss the case among yourselves or allow anyone else to discuss it with you or form any opinions until it is finally presented to you. tomorrow at nine