Pre-Trial Phase Scheduled in Manslaughter Case

A pretrial hearing was set Tuesday for a Massachusetts man accused of manslaughter in connection with the death of his father, a retired West Hartford lawyer and a former interim Superior Court judge.

Bruce F. Brodigan, 56, of Somerville, MA, appeared briefly in Hartford Superior Court with his attorney, Hubert J. Santos. Brodigan is scheduled to return to Judge Arthur P. Gold’s courtroom in Part A of the criminal division on March 4, a day before the anniversary of his father’s birth.

The charges that could send him to jail include second-degree manslaughter, a Class C felony that carries a maximum 10-year penalty and up to a $10,000 fine.

Brodigan is also charged with tampering with evidence, making a false statement to police and interfering with police. He is free on a $250,000 bond.

George D. Brodigan died Sept. 14 in his bed at 50 Timberwood Road, said. He was 82 and was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease about four years earlier, police said.

Brodigan first told police he found his father dead. He later acknowledged to investigators that he and his husband, Tom Grasso, were in the bedroom when the elder Brodigan allegedly took his life with a lethal cocktail of pills and alcohol, police said.

In a 12-page arrest warrant prepared by West Hartford police Det. Dawn Lascari, Brodigan said that “his father confided in him that he planned to take his own life before he became completely incapacitated.”

George Brodigan’s personal physician told Lascari that Brodigan’s death was a surprise. “[The physician] did not have any indications that George was depressed or contemplating suicide,” Lascari said in the arrest affidavit.

Police interviews with other members of the elder Brodigan's family and with his medical team, including a personal nurse, reached the same conclusion, according to the affidavit.

Brodigan died of an overdose of alcohol and amitriptyline, which was prescribed to Bruce Brodigan, police said. The state Medical Examiner’s office was unable to determine the manner of death.

Police also found two Clonazepam pills under Brodigan’s body that were prescribed to his son.

“Bruce described witnessing George Brodigan’s suicide as the ‘most beautiful, loving moment I had with my father’ during his life,” Lascari said in the affidavit.

A full autopsy was performed Oct. 19 and no external signs of a struggle were found, police said.

Brodigan turned himself in to West Hartford police on Jan. 5, accompanied by Santos. A prominent Hartford-based lawyer, Santos was in headlines in 1990 when he gained an acquittal for Karin Aparo, who was accused of conspiring to kill her mother.

Santos’ name also was in the arrest affidavit. When Lascari attempted to contact Brodigan’s sister, Amy Brodigan, on Dec. 2, the detective was told to direct questions to Santos. Santos “informed me that he does not represent Amy Brodigan.”

Amy Brodigan also was at the two-story Timberwood Road home with her partner on the day her father died, police said. But she apparently left before the incident.

A 1969 Connecticut statute made assisted suicide a Class C felony.

George Brodigan was a Marine Corps veteran who started his own law firm in 1975 after many years in corporate litigation for Travelers Insurance Cos., according to his obituary. He was an interim Superior Court judge in 1985 and ’86. A memorial service is scheduled March 5.