Meanwhile, Lisa was comatose and filthy, her hair a matted, ratty mess and her feet covered in layers of grime. Lisa was rushed to St. They quickly decided she was the victim of extensive abuse, and both Steinberg and Nussbaum were arrested on attempted murder charges. The tragic girl was declared brain-dead Nov. Her heart stopped beating 15 minutes later.
The charges against Steinberg and Nussbaum were quickly upgraded to murder, with Nussbaum eventually offering to testify against Steinberg, who went on trial in October With no eyewitness to the blows that killed Lisa, prosecutors presented a circumstantial case based largely on the testimony of Nussbaum, against whom all charges were dropped.
The defense tried arguing that Nussbaum killed Lisa in a jealous rage, then pretended she was crazy to cut a deal and avoid punishment. He finally got mandatory parole June 30, , then spent time in a Harlem halfway house and a Times Square hotel before landing in his apartment in Then they pulled all the books out. And then they took pictures. They ruined it. And they knew — and there were people who said she behaved poorly [before].
At one point, the convicted killer made several threats over how his words would be reported by The Post. Twice during the interview, Steinberg strolled off to smoke cigarettes he bummed from strangers, and at one point upbraided a homeless woman who approached to beg for spare change.
Hedda Nussbaum is the woman whose battered face became a national symbol of domestic abuse. Entering the Greenwich Village apartment that Hedda shared with her common-law husband, wealthy attorney Joel Steinberg, police found the couple's illegally adopted daughter, Lisa, beaten and unconscious.
Hedda and Joel were arrested. Six-year-old Lisa died on November 5. Prosecutors eventually dropped the charges against Hedda.
Joel was charged with second-degree murder and first- degree manslaughter, convicted of manslaughter in after a televised trial that included seven days of chilling testimony from Hedda. Joel was given a sentence of 8-and-a-third to 25 years, and is due to be released from prison in June of next year. And all of this, it seems like yesterday, but it does go back to , these events now approaching 16 years ago.
Before we tell the whole story, were you surprised that he only got manslaughter? I was relieved that they convicted him of something because it took the jury, I think, six or seven days of deliberation. And apparently, they -- a lot of the jurors were thinking that I had done it.
And I was glad that he got KING: Let's go back. Where did you meet Joel? We -- I was looking to go to -- to join a half share in the Hamptons, where singles go, and I dated him for maybe two months and broke it off because I thought he was pushing me to date him, see him almost every night.
When I would say I had something else to do, he would always convince me to change my mind. And I felt it was my fault, not his, that I was too easily persuaded. I thought it was because of me, that I was too easily persuaded, and broke it off with him because I felt that he brought that out in me. And one day, he showed up. And for a lot of reasons Why didn't the Nussbaums marry? And even though I really wanted marriage, I allowed him to convince me of it and I went along with him, just as I went along with a lot of things that he wanted that I didn't.
That's where you lived? KING: All right. And you then continued to work at Random House, and he practiced law. Was there abuse before Lisa? There wasn't any abuse for three years. Nothing physical, anyway. And he started building me up, helping me to come out of my shell, which I liked. I thought it was terrific. Almost every night, he would work with me almost like a therapist.
And it started to actually work, so I thought he was terrific. I started coming out of the wallpaper. Also, when we'd go to parties, which was frequent, he would critique me afterwards. And he'd say, You should have said this, You should have done that. And as I said, it really started to work, so I thought he was the greatest. KING: Did he also use -- this came up at the trial.
Did he use cocaine? At that time, he wouldn't even take an aspirin. He said, I won't put any foreign substance into my body. But over time, he started representing drug clients, and eventually, the drug use started. Why -- she was never legally adopted, right? KING: Why not?
Why didn't you go through -- first of all, why didn't you have children? We both really wanted children very much. I went through all the tests. The first test they always do on the man because that's the simplest.
And then I went through all the other tests. They never found anything wrong. Well, today, I think it was him because eventually, they discovered he had a low sperm count -- years later, but KING: Right.
Now, how does -- how do you -- you mean you adopted Lisa but never -- explain what happened. What happened was that in his legal practice, Joel sometimes did some private adoptions. And so through that means, when he learned of a child that seemed appropriate, he met with Lisa's birth mother before Lisa was born and told her that he was going to find a home for the child.
She did not know that it was going to be him. And apparently NUSSBAUM: I knew that he'd met with her, but he told me she said she didn't care if the couple was married or not, she didn't care what religion they were. That's not what she said later.
She said she wanted only a Catholic family, and she wanted a married couple. But I didn't know that. KING: But did you know that he didn't tell the birth mother that you two would be the parents? First thing, you need a consent agreement. And I was trying to reword the agreement, and so on.
But as time went on, as years started to pass, I was afraid -- I mean, he -- keeping this child I knew that. We'll be right back with Hedda Nussbaum and more of this tragic story.
Don't go away. This staring business had gotten to be too much for her. He complained about it that night, while allegedly free-basing cocaine. When she got up, he grabbed her, shook her again and threw her down. And that happened at least two or three times. KING: All right, we're back. Now Hedda and Joel Nussbaum have little Lisa. She was a marvelous baby, a bright child. I adored being a mother. I had waited so long and thought I would never have a child.
So even the nastiest tasks, like, you know, changing diapers and I loved it. But as she started getting older, he became a really doting father. She used to sit on his lap when they watched TV at night. She -- he used to take her -- as she started getting older, when she was 5 and 6, he used to take her with him to business lunches or business dinner when she was in school during the day. KING: Did you ever hear during this period of time from the birth mother or So it's -- is it -- and he was good to you?
I mean, would you say, at this point, she's 5 years old, this was a normal, happy home? He started -- the first time he ever hit me was three years after we were together. That was But at that point, it was -- the first time he ever hit me, I was shocked and he seemed shocked. He took me in his arms.
I thought it was a fluke. I thought he was so terrific. He'd been helping me so much. I gave him credit for all the raises and promotions I was getting at Random House because he kept pushing me into them, even though I realized they never would have Maybe another one was six months later or so.
KING: Why did you dismiss them? Why didn't you leave? And he said, What are you doing? I said, I'm leaving. Next thing I knew, I was down on the floor with an injured leg. He knocked me down, put me into an ice-cold bath to take down the swelling and I think probably realized how much I hated the cold water and started using that as what he called a "discipline. And that meant cold baths, which were horrible, I mean, to sit in ice-cold water KING: I know this is asked all the time of women who are battered.
Why didn't you just take Lisa one day and go? I didn't want people to know I was being battered. And they would They would convince me to go back. Or I'd call him so he wouldn't worry, and he'd talk me into coming back. And a couple of times, I ended up at a hospital when I was in bad shape. And I told the doctor, I said, My boyfriend hit me. And then I realized, My goodness, he's a lawyer.
And he's this wonderful man who's helping me so much. I said, No, no. Erase that. Cross that out. And I have a copy of that report, that medical report. She crossed it out. And it was in the hospital records for years.
But in those days, no one ever -- I mean, who knew anything about domestic violence? I mean, he was -- he was I was. As the years went on more and more, he convinced me he was a healer.
He convinced me he had magical powers. I mean, it really -- he was using food deprivation, sleep deprivation. I can only surmise that -- because she was getting older, and since what he -- what abusive men want is power and control. And I guess he couldn't control her so easily anymore because she was getting older. I don't really know what happened or why. I never saw him hit her, by the way. I didn't see him hit her.
She never did. I never talked about it, and I guess she followed the pattern. She never talked about it.
KING: What did you think when you looked at her? Didn't it show on her? There was Her brother at that time was a baby. And so I knew what must have happened.
I had to realize it. Yes, he was 16 -- I got him also a day after he was born, and he was 16 months old at the time. KING: I'm in a bad marriage.
I'm being -- I'm in a bad relationship. I'm being whacked around. I worry about my daughter. I worry about this whole thing. And now we're bringing a boy in? But at that point, I needed -- I was totally -- I was isolated from everybody. He had cut me off from my family, from my friends, from my job. I hardly ever went outside anymore.
And what I've realized from working with battered women is that when there -- not only do you reach out to the abuser, but if there's a baby, you can hold that baby all the time. And a lot of women have told me they do. So I used to hold this child all the time, which I was told was good for him, too.
And I think I really spoiled him because he wouldn't go to sleep unless he was in my arms. KING: Incredible story. We'll pick it up in a minute. You going to write a book, by the way? And one of the reasons I'm now giving interviews is that my agent right now has the book and is That last week, because I had such bad injuries to my leg, Joel was being the good, concerned spouse and saying, Well, you really shouldn't do any because it's not good for your circulation.
So he was doing But only at night, after they were asleep. Normally, that was the only time we did it. But then he started doing it all the time.
He'd go into the bathroom and send Lisa outside to play with her friends, to roller skate, and so on. KING: Lisa would appear to the outer world a normal child, at this point. Going to school? When I say brainwashed, I mean this man was using every means in the book -- I mean, he was really diabolical. I have sued Joel in civil court and At the hearing, we had a Bezel Vandercoke ph , who is a professor at Harvard Law School -- Medical School testified that when somebody is repeatedly traumatized, that in order to protect you, your own body secretes something called "endogenous opioids," which numb you, numb the pain, numb the terror.
But they make you numb, I was really numb by that time. I was like a zombie. What happened was I was in the bathroom, and Joel -- that night, she was supposed to go out with him to dinner.
He often took her out. And he was insisting that both of us drink more water, so we were -- he forced us to eat hot peppers that night so that we would drink water. And then we did drink water. And Lisa KING: For what purpose? And Lisa said, Do you think Daddy's going to take me out tonight? And I said, Go in and ask him. There was no reason to think that there was any -- you know, he seemed in good humor, except for the fact that he was forcing us to eat the peppers.
And she went in, and I left the kitchen and was in the bathroom. And he came in, and he was carrying her in his arms -- limp, like this. And I said, What happened? And he said, What's the difference what happened? This is your child. Hasn't this gone far enough?
He was blaming it on me. And so I'll get her up when I come back. And I really had -- he had convinced me he was a healer. And I believed absolutely that he was going to do that. I started while he was there and figured he knew what happened, if that was wrong, that he would tell me, That's not going to help.
And he showed me the proper way to give her artificial respiration. I thought I was helping her. Of course, it had no effect. She's 6 years old. OK, I'm going to connect you to the ambulance. And I said, OK, get her up, when he came home. And he said, No, we have to smoke first. He wanted to smoke cocaine. So we have to be relating to each other.
Anyway, hours and hours were going by, and he's smoking this and talking. And I keep running in to check on Lisa. And finally, I just said, This is ridiculous, you know? And so then he followed me Anyway, he followed me and brought her into bed with him.
And he didn't get her up. I mean, all he did was put his arm on her, and it seemed her breathing became more regular, and I thought that was helping, at least. And hours went by. And finally he said, She's stopped breathing. And I said, Should I call ? And I had -- I still -- after all that, I had to ask him.
And he said, No, wait. Let me try to revive her. I guess he was scared enough that he said, Call And I did. KING: And the police come, and everybody -- the ambulance comes first, right? They take the child. When were you And some police came in and -- anyway, they start questioning us. They didn't believe the -- I think, apparently, they didn't believe the story that Joel The story that he had told them at the hospital, which I backed up, was that she was choking on some vegetables and then stopped breathing.
Joel gets out next year. I'm just trying to find out why she would have stopped breathing. She's throwing up a lot of food, even water. The two were arrested together, but Steinberg faces the charge of second degree murder alone. Calling her a zombie battered beyond will, the prosecutors cleared Nussbaum and made her their star witness. She testified that Steinberg would beat Lisa and that she would do nothing about it.
And they put me in a room by myself, and just the way you would see it on "NYPD Blue" or something, they left me in there for an hour, and then came back and questioned me more, then left me alone again.
But at that point, I was sure that Lisa was going to be fine and I wouldn't tell them what happened. I wouldn't tell them the truth. I said she had bruises, she falls a lot roller skating. And I really believed she was going to be OK. And I kept asking them to call the hospital to find out how she was. And I was so surprised when they said, there was no change. I assumed he was telling them the same story. And I said -- or they said, we can read you your rights. And I said, read me my rights.
And I preferred to be arrested at that point. He called him to be a lawyer for both of us. And I went to Central Booking in Manhattan, was there a few hours and then went to the hospital. I was really in bad shape. I could have lost my leg or died of blood poisoning. The hospital -- the doctor testified at Joel's trial that within 48 hours, I would have been dead.
You're not telling Of course, they knew that it was true. And I was handcuffed to the bed with a hour guard outside my door, which they said was for my own protection. I had agreed that I would talk with the district attorney. And they eventually dropped the charges, because they believed what I said and they decided that I couldn't have either physically or psychologically have committed it. KING: Why didn't you hate your boyfriend? Why wouldn't you be willing to tell them everything that minute, that second?
As soon as I heard she was dead, that day I told my attorney everything. That was Barry Scheck, and it was the first time I really was shocked that, you know, I didn't think I would tell anybody, but I told him everything.
KING: He was kept in a different prison, and you were -- he was in a different jail, and you were released? I was in the prison hospital, and then I was released to -- not released, but I was put into a psychiatric ward at a hospital.
Because I believed that Joel was a better parent. I believed that he had these magical powers, and they thought this women needs a little help. And I said, it looks like who was home at the time, when -- I mean, he was home with her. So he's now I mean, I know more or less the area where he is. KING: What stopped the brainwash? First, I was in Columbia Presbyterian And then I went to Four Winds ph Hospital.
The trial was a full year later. So, what happened was, I was talking to the district attorneys, but I still felt from all this brainwashing that I was still in love with Joel, and one day, something -- it finally just all came together.
And I couldn't sleep that night. I got up with this book in which I drew pictures. It was a -- and wrote I went into another room and started drawing a picture of Joel, copy it from the newspaper. And suddenly, all of a sudden I just saw him for who he really is. Nussbaum, initially a co-defendant, herself had a split lip, broken ribs, a broken nose and a fractured jaw she said were inflicted by Steinberg.
But according to Steinberg, he shared a unique, loving relationship with the slain girl — an assertion that led to five rejections by the parole board. Steinberg will have to make regular visits to a parole officer through October Now disbarred, he worked in prison as a paralegal. She has quit her job at a domestic violence center, the Journal News reported Wednesday. Her small white house in Carmel was empty Tuesday.
Case shattered abuse stereotypes The case defied many stereotypes about child abuse. This was a middle-class family, a lawyer and a book editor raising two children in a historic brownstone where Mark Twain once resided.
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