AUSTIN, Texas — Documents obtained by KVUE in the wake of a former detective's arrest show that Stephen Broderick had a history of violence accusations.
Alyssa Broderick, the former detective's daughter, has been named as one of the victims in the deadly April 18 attack. Willie Simmons and Amanda Broderick, Stephen's ex-wife and Alyssa's mother, also died in the shooting. Simmons was a senior at Elgin High School and Alyssa Broderick had withdrawn from Elgin ISD in the fall.
In June 2020, Stephen Broderick, formerly a detective with the Travis County Sheriff's Office, was arrested and charged with sexual assault of a child. According to court documents, Broderick has been indicted with nine counts of sexual assault of a child, all of which happened with one child.
Court documents also show he allegedly strangled a family member, and has been indicted on three counts of family violence assault.
He had an ankle monitor when he was released following the June 2020 charge, but it was later taken off.
Broderick's lawyer argued that Broderick had worn the monitor for 142 days with no substantial violations and that it should be removed. A state district judge agreed, which left him unsupervised months after his daughter and Amanda stated they feared for their safety with him released from jail.
According to the Austin American-Statesman, State District Judge Karen Sage said she typically agrees to remove tracking devices when a defendant has shown a pattern of compliance and has not incurred any violations. She also said she rarely keeps defendants on GPS tracking for more than 90 days if they have been compliant.
Court documents show Broderick's bail conditions required him to surrender all firearms and not obtain any new ones.
Amanda applied for a protective order after his arrest, saying she was worried for her and her children's safety.
"I'm afraid he will try to hurt me or my children, because these allegations have come out and he may lose his career," she said in the application. "Stephen has prior military experience and is SWAT trained. If he wanted to hurt someone, he would know how."
Broderick's daughter stated in the application for a protective order that she also felt unsafe with her father out of jail.
"I felt safe after my dad had been arrested and he was in jail, but now that he's out I don't feel safe," she wrote. "I'm afraid that to him, a protective order will be just a piece of paper. I'm worried that he'll come after my family ... I'm afraid that he might hurt me or my mom."
That protective order was approved in August 2020. In that same month, they were divorced, paperwork shows.
On July 6, prosecutors filed a motion to increase his bond, alleging that he had sent an email accusing Amanda of a "cash grab" and attached multiple images depicting her undressed and engaged in sexual acts. The Statesman reported that Sage granted the motion and increased his bond to $75,000.
Broderick is now being held in jail without bail after the deadly shootings.
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