Nussbaum Tells of Being Handed Comatose Body of Lisa Steinberg

Nussbaum Tells of Being Handed Comatose Body of Lisa Steinberg

By RONALD SULLIVAN

LEAD: Hedda Nussbaum has told Manhattan prosecutors that Joel B. Steinberg handed her the comatose body of Lisa Steinberg shortly before he left their Greenwich Village apartment on Nov. 1, 1987, to have dinner with a friend, top law-enforcement officials said last night.

Hedda Nussbaum has told Manhattan prosecutors that Joel B. Steinberg handed her the comatose body of Lisa Steinberg shortly before he left their Greenwich Village apartment on Nov. 1, 1987, to have dinner with a friend, top law-enforcement officials said last night.

The officials said Ms. Nussbaum's statement was included in prosecution motions filed with Acting Justice Harold J. Rothwax of State Supreme Court, who will preside over the trial of Mr. Steinberg. He is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Lisa, 6 years old, whom he and Ms. Nussbaum raised.

The trial is to begin Tuesday after the selection of six alternate jurors. First Indication of Evidence

The motions disclosing Ms. Nussbaum's statements to prosecutors on Sept. 28 were filed this week by the Manhattan District Attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, as part of his pretrial motions in the case. It was the first indication of the evidence that will be presented in the trial.

Officials said Mr. Morgenthau has agreed to drop murder charges against Ms. Nussbaum on the agreement that she will testify against Mr. Steinberg if Mr. Morgenthau calls her as a prosecution witness.

Late yesterday, officials in Mr. Morgenthau's office said they had not decided whether they would call Ms. Nussbaum.

Prosecutors said that Ms. Nussbaum's statement in which she said Mr. Steinberg ''placed in my arms the comatose body of Lisa'' was the first evidence challenging Mr. Steinberg's version of how Lisa died. They described her statement as the first detailed description of the events that led to the death of the girl, who was raised by Mr. Steinberg and Ms. Nussbaum, although they never legally adopted her.

In interviews with the police and emergency ambulance workers who were summoned to the Steinberg apartment at dawn on Nov. 2, Mr. Steinberg said Lisa ''was fine'' when he left the apartment to go out for dinner with a friend.

He also said that Lisa became ill after eating a dinner of mixed vegetables and that when he returned toward midnight he and Ms. Nussbaum spent the remainder of the night attempting to revive her.

Mr. Steinberg said any bruises on Lisa's body were a result of his efforts to apply cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

But doctors at St. Vincent's Medical Center, where Lisa was taken by ambulance, told the police later the she was ''brain dead'' from a sharp blow to the head. A few hours later Mr. Steinberg and Ms. Nussbaum were arrested and both were charged with second-degree murder in the death. Although Mr. Steinberg was indicted, Ms. Nussbaum was not. She has spent the last year recovering from the mental and physical effects of what Mr. Morgenthau has said are multiple beatings by Mr. Steinberg. No Murder Weapon

Peter Casolaro and John McCuscker, who will give the prosecution's opening statement on Tuesday, have already told the court that their case does not include any witnesses to the fatal blow that they said killed Lisa.

They also have stated that there was no murder weapon, strongly indicating that Lisa was killed by a hard blow by a closed fist.

When the police interviewed Mr. Steinberg at St. Vincent's Hospital, they asked how he received cuts and bruises on his right hand. He said at one time that he did not know, and at another time that he received them when he removed a lighting fixture from an apartment closet.

Ira D. London, Mr. Steinberg's lawyer, has said that he would argue to the jury that Lisa was in good health when Mr. Steinberg left his apartment to have dinner.

Mr. London also said he also would argue that any injuries suffered by Lisa could have been caused by someone else, or that she may have been the victim of medical malpractice while being cared for by the ambulance crew or by doctors and nurses at St. Vincent's.