LEAD: The life and death of Lisa Steinberg illustrate how easy it was for a Manhattan couple to obtain a child and rear her without going through the formal process of adopting her.
The life and death of Lisa Steinberg illustrate how easy it was for a Manhattan couple to obtain a child and rear her without going through the formal process of adopting her.
The couple, Joel B. Steinberg and Hedda Nussbaum, face charges of murder in the beating death of 6-year-old Lisa.
It began with what Michelle Launders thought would be a private, or independent, adoption of her newborn baby, to be arranged by her attorney, Mr. Steinberg.
When she became pregnant in 1980, Ms. Launders, now 26, was desperate to disguise that fact and to find a suitable home for her child. For Ms. Launders, who is a Roman Catholic, there was no thought of abortion. Portrait of Desperation
In testimony before Surrogate Marie M. Lambert this month in a hearing to determine who would bury Lisa, Ms. Launders revealed just how desperate, and just how gullible, she had been.
According to Ms. Launders, a friend referred her to Dr. Michael Bergman, an obstetrician, who told her he knew a lawyer who could arrange the adoption. Dr. Bergman, who died recently, also arranged for her to live with his receptionist during the last months of her pregnancy.
About one month before the child's birth, she testified, she met Mr. Steinberg in a Greenwich Village restaurant. She was accompanied by her mother and Dr. Bergman's receptionist. The receptionist, she said, had told her to bring $500 in cash to Mr. Steinberg ''to show good faith that we were going through with this and to start the legal process of filing papers.''
Lawyers familiar with adoptions say it is highly irregular for a lawyer to solicit a fee in such circumstances. It is also illegal, they say, for a lawyer to become involved in placing a child. Absence of Suspicion
The lawyer now representing Ms. Launders, Anthony W. Cornachio, said neither she nor her mother was suspicious about the payment.
''To them, they were dealing with a professional and this seemed like a way that, very quietly, their problem could be put to rest and the child would be taken care of,'' Mr. Cornachio said.
According to Ms. Launders's account of the meeting, Mr. Steinberg explained that he could not allow her to sign legal papers until after the child's birth. That was the last she ever saw of Mr. Steinberg, and she never signed any documents.
According to records at the New York Infirmary-Beekman Downtown Hospital, which were submitted to Surrogate Lambert in the hearing, Ms. Launders gave birth to a girl on May 14, 1981, at 8:12 A.M. ''I saw her for about 20 seconds,'' she testified. Steinberg Took Baby
On May 16, the records indicated, Dr. Bergman gave the baby to Mr. Steinberg, who took it from the hospital.
Ms. Launders testified that she had been in labor when she was admitted to the hospital on May 13, so Dr. Bergman's receptionist had provided much of the information contained in the hospital records.
Among other things, Ms. Launders's address was listed ''in care of Joel Steinberg, 14 West 10th Street,'' an incorrect Social Security number was given, a birth date was given to indicate falsely that she was 21 rather than 19 and a sister was listed as the next of kin. Ms. Launders has no sisters.
It is unclear why this inaccurate information was given to the hospital.
As for what became of the baby, Mr. Cornachio said in an interview, ''Initially the child went to one couple and perhaps to more than one couple, but the child was returned to Steinberg.'' Naming Ceremony
Why the child was returned to Mr. Steinberg is unclear, but according to a source familiar with the investigation, Mr. Steinberg may have sought a large sum of money from prospective adoptive parents who refused to pay.
For whatever reason, Mr. Steinberg and Ms. Nussbaum kept the baby, and within a few days of her birth they participated in a naming ceremony at the Teaneck (N.J.) Jewish Center. A rabbi issued certificates to them indicating that the child's name was Elizabeth Erin Nussbaum-Steinberg, that her parents were Joel Steinberg and Hedda Nussbaum and that her Hebrew name was Rochel Malya Tovah.
These documents are commonly issued by some synagogues though, according to Rabbi Wolfe Kelman, the executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, an organization of Conservative rabbis, ''they have no official, legal or even religious standing.''
That fact apparently slipped the notice of school officials when Lisa was enrolled in Public School 41. According to testimony in the hearing, those documents were accepted in lieu of a birth certificate - an apparent violation of state law.
The principal of P.S. 41, Elliott Koreman, said he had been told by the Manhattan District Attorney's office not to discuss the documents or the circumstances of Lisa's enrollment.
Law-enforcement officials in Manhattan and in Nassau County are now trying to determine whether Mr. Steinberg was involved in a black-market baby ring, how he ended up with Lisa and another infant and what, if any, criminal law he may have violated by not properly adopting the children.