Joel Steinberg

I cannot tell you the number of cases I have come across that involve the murder of a child in which there are quick demands for reform in some way. Most of those calls refer to having the Department of Family Services re-evaluated. Those are the cases that involve children who have been in the system and either returned to a known abusing parent or placed in foster homes in which they were later abused or murdered. Sadly it appears that nothing really happens aside from maybe one or two people involved in protecting the child is fired or put on administrative leave. Then a few years later another child will be murdered in that same area and the same arguments are brought up again. It is a case of wash, rinse and repeat it seems. This case did not involve the Department of Family Services, although it obviously should have. In this case the reform calls came for the process of adoption. However, in my opinion reforms for adoption would not have saved the life of Lisa Steinberg.

In the early morning hours of November 2, 1987 a 911 call was made in the Greenwich Village area of Manhattan New York. The caller was a woman named Hedda Nussbaum. She was reporting that her daughter, Lisa Steinberg had stopped breathing. Immediately upon their arrival at the scene both emergency responders and police officers knew something was definitely wrong there. It seems that then the Department of Family Services were called in. Aside from the fact that six year old Lisa was not breathing it was evident that not only was she filthy but so was the other child they found in the house. The other child, sixteen month old Mitchell Steinberg was tethered to a “makeshift” playpen drinking spoiled milk and wearing a heavily soiled diaper.

Lisa would be rushed to the local hospital and placed on life support. Almost immediately both Hedda Nussbaum and her common law husband, attorney Joel Steinberg were arrested on charges of attempted murder. Mitchell was removed from the home and placed in state custody. On November 4^th doctors declared Lisa to be brain dead and the following morning life support was discontinued. Fifteen minutes later the little girls heart would stop. Nussbaum and Steinberg were now facing murder charges.

It was said that when Lisa had been brought into the hospital her hair was heavily matted and tangled and that her feet had “six layers” of dirt on them. She smelled of urine and vomit. Her autopsy revealed not only a cause of death but also several bruises at varying stages of healing indicating she had suffered weeks to months, if not her entire life, from abuse. She had bruises on her arms, legs, inner thighs, chest, buttocks, left should and even at the small of her back. Experts would later say these were not the normal bruises suffered by a rambunctious child in the course of a day who would take tumbles.

Joel Steinberg would tell doctors that the previous evening she had choked on a vegetable that she was eating and had vomited much of the night until just before the 911 call when she was found not breathing. The autopsy revealed that to be a lie. Her cause of death was listed as blunt force trauma to the head.

But as much as Lisa's body told a story, so did many other things, including Hedda Nussbaum. Now, before I get too far into her and her actions, or lack there of as they may be seen, I want to be clear in the fact that despite whatever trauma that Hedda obviously suffered at the hands of Joel Steinberg, the condition of her children and the way they were treated is not to be excused in my opinion. The officers and first responders who had gone to the scene that early morning and noticed the condition of the children and the home also noticed the condition of Hedda Nussbaum. She was sporting two black eyes, busted lips and her nose was split down the middle. An examination would show that she was suffering from broken ribs, a broken nose and a fractured jaw. She was also suffering from severe permanent damage to her spinal cord. She would proclaim that these injuries were all a result of about fifteen years of abuse from Joel Steinberg. She began working with investigators to tell them what had occurred in the home leading up to Lisa's death.

According to Hedda around six on the evening of November 1, 1987 she was in the bathroom when Joel brought Lisa to her. She claims she did not witness Joel hitting Lisa and I have seen a few reasons as to why it may have happened. In one version Lisa allegedly asked Joel if she could go with him as he headed out to a business dinner and in another (both are widely repeated) she had simply stared at him. She claims that the child was unconscious and that she attempted to wake her. Joel then left the apartment to either party with friends, or to go to a business dinner (again, both are widely repeated). Hedda says Joel returned about ten that night and both she and Joel freebased cocaine for a few hours. Around four in the morning Joel picked Lisa off the floor and placed her on the bed. Hedda made the 911 call about 6:40 that morning when she allegedly discovered that she was not breathing.

Eventually investigators and prosecutors would make a deal with Hedda that involved dropping the charges against her in exchange for her testimony against Joel. Obviously there were many who were angered by this decision because they felt Hedda was just as responsible for what happened to Lisa as Joel had been. In fact, some argued that she was more responsible because he had left the home and she did not call for help right away. The reality of it is however, without her testimony they may have both walked and no one would be held accountable for Lisa's death. Prosecutors could have tried the couple together at a trial but more than likely it would have been even more of a “he said/she said” situation than it already was. To add to this there were Hedda's own injuries. Her lawyers claimed she had battered woman's syndrome and there was little to dispute that theory. Without the deal they would have likely never have gotten Hedda on the stand to testify against Joel and as I said then they would both go free.

Joel Steinberg would go on trial in October of 1988 and it would last a total of twelve weeks. It was said to be the first trial televised from gavel to gavel, even if it was simply at a local level. One would imagine that the charge would have been first degree murder. However, in New York at the time that could only be applied when it involved the murder of a police officer or someone who had already been convicted of another murder. He faced second degree charges, and while it is not always the case, in this situation the jury would be allowed to apply lesser charges if applicable.

For her part Hedda was on the stand for seven straight days. She testified about their lifestyle that while it included almost ritualistic beatings on a regular basis also included a lot of drugs, mainly cocaine. The defense of course jumped on her and her testimony. They argued not only was Hedda allegedly responsible for not obtaining aid to Lisa for some eight plus hours she was the sole person with her for about four of those. To be fair, I could have gotten on board with at least part of this argument. And, if there was no other evidence it may have put me on the fence as to who I believed had administered the beating on Lisa that evening. They attempted to argue that Hedda had killed Lisa while in a rage and then “pretended” she was crazy to cut a deal and avoid punishment. But, then there were the issues of Hedda's own injuries and this is where in my opinion the defense lost all credibility for me. They claimed that the severe damage to Hedda's face and her spinal injuries were “results from a consensual sadomasochistic relationship” between her and Joel.

I have to be fair here and say that other information that had been discovered about Joel Steinberg had been released at the very least through the media, but I am unsure that it was released in the trial as it did not directly pertain to the murder of Lisa. So, while I will touch on those things next, I will simply state that while the jury found him not guilty on the count of murder they did find him guilty of first degree manslaughter. When he was sentenced on March 24, 1989 he was given the maximum sentence the judge was allowed, eight to twenty-five years.

The investigation had discovered that not only had Lisa never been officially adopted by Joel Steinberg, he had been paid by her biological mother to find a “good Catholic home” for her. Instead he had kept her, and never went through the official channels of adoption. The same was done with sixteen month old Mitchell who had been in the home at that time. Lisa's biological mother, Michele Launders had been a nineteen year old teenager when she gave birth to her. She had paid Steinberg $500 in 1981 to place Lisa into a good home. That $500 would be the equivalent of nearly $1,500 today. Michele had no idea that Steinberg had simply taken the baby home with him to raise with Nussbaum. Eventually, Mitchell, who was renamed Travis went back to his biological mother, Nicole Smigiel.

Michele Launders fought Steinberg in court for the right to bury her daughter. She had his name deleted from from her death certificate and it now reads “Baby girl Launders also known as Lisa.” In 1988 Launders would file a civil suit against Joel, Hedda and “various” city agencies. It is unclear what the outcome of this was against Hedda. But just before it was to go to trial in September of 1999 the city of New York settled with Launders in the amount of $985,000.

Joel Steinberg was eligible for parole several times but was denied mainly because he never showed remorse, nor did he ever accept responsibility for Lisa's death. He was paroled on June 30, 2004 under the “good time” law in New York. He had served 2/3 of his sentence which was the standard at the time. Since then New York has changed the law and require those with violent felonies to serve 6/7 of their sentence. While he had been disbarred himself, he had been working as a paralegal while in prison for nearly seventeen years. And yet, the day he got out his civil attorney picked him up from prison in a limousine. The attorney told reporters that he had gotten a “free” apartment for Steinberg and a job making $250 a week with a local cable television show. It is unclear if that all really happened however. It was said that Steinberg settled back into an apartment in Harlem and went to work in the construction business. He was forced to serve probation until October of 2012.

In the meantime (in 2003) he been ordered by the court to pay Michele Launders fifteen million dollars. In 2006 Steinberg, now acting as his own attorney appealed that decision but in January of 2007 it was upheld. The court broke it down to five million for the pain and suffering that Lisa for the eight plus hours before she received medical care; five million for the pain and suffering as a battered child and five million in punitive damages. Prior to the appeal being denied it appears that in 2005 Steinberg had paid $4,300 of that judgment but it was said in 2014 that he had not paid a penny more. The order was filed again to keep it “viable” so as to show Joel Steinberg not only was it not forgotten, but it was not going away.

In November of 2017 Steinberg was interviewed for a news article. He still lives in Harlem and still shows no remorse. It seems he spends a lot of time “bumming” things like food, cigarettes and even Internet. I suggest that unless you really want to get your blood pumping that you do not read it yourself. He spent the entire time playing the victim. He claims that police officers trashed the apartment to make him look bad. He claims that no medical report proves that he abused Lisa and that she died because doctors failed to give her proper care. Of course he is right that the medical report did not have his name on them claiming he was the abuser but then again, that would not be expected. He was quoted as saying “What did she die of? She died of pulling the plug.” So, in his mind if they had never shut off life support she would still be alive and hence he would not have faced murder or manslaughter charges. Then if that was not enough he seems to forget that the story not only was nationwide news but has lived on in infamy because he told the reporter that he was not arrested when clearly records show that he was. He now claims that only Hedda was arrested and that was out of town at the time of the whole incident. And then he gave this “gem” of a quote.... “If you go out there and put a picture of me in the paper I can't take a subway for two weeks because some fat person will decide to say, 'I know you and you're a piece of shit' and then I turn around and he punches me in the fucking nose.” He claims that he all but “pretends” that Lisa did not die and he still talks to her because it is too painful for him to do otherwise.

Joel Steinberg is one of those people who should have died in prison and when it was done he should have been buried under the prison.

On a good note Travis Smigiel, aka Mitchell Steinberg, went on to graduate high school with honors, went to college and then married and started a family. The last I found he was working in the banking industry. Thankfully he was too young to have emotional scars from his ordeal and that he was removed before he suffered a fate such as Lisa's.