Mom says memory foggy on girl's abuse

Mom says memory foggy on girl's abuse

By David Conti

TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Debra Liberman told an Allegheny County jury on Wednesday that she has only fleeting memories of the night she tortured her adopted daughter.

She knows she was angry and paranoid. But she said she does not know why she poured bleach down little Haley's back, beat her with a dog chain, forced cat food and salt down her throat and locked her in a coal cellar, and then a closet.

"I felt she needed to be punished, but I didn't know what for," Liberman, 52, of Carrick, said as she cried through more than three hours of testimony yesterday.

"I heard nothing. I didn't hear my voice or her voice. There was no rational thought. I didn't know she was in pain or burning."

Liberman finished up testifying in her own defense yesterday, which was the second day of her trial on charges of attempted homicide, aggravated assault, arson, child endangerment and unlawful restraint.

Haley Liberman, now 9, on Tuesday described the beatings and abuse she endured the night of Feb. 9 and early morning of Feb. 10, 2004.

Defense attorneys Todd Hollis and Sumner Parker are trying to convince the jury that their client suffered from temporary psychosis that night, brought on by financial and emotional stress and a reaction to medications for severe asthma.

Assistant District Attorney Laura Ditka grilled Liberman on why the medications and stress affected her just this once, and why she only remembered certain details.

"You seem to remember just bits and pieces, Ms. Liberman," Ditka said. "You remember you were angry and wanted to punish Haley."

"That's not punishment," Liberman replied hysterically. "Nobody deserves that."

Haley suffered chemical burns on her back and buttocks. She now lives with Liberman's ex-husband, Daniel Liberman, in Virginia.

Debra Liberman testified that she went to UPMC South Side Hospital twice in the hours before the attack because she had intentionally cut her arm with a knife in front of Haley and her younger brother Noah, who was not harmed.

"Sometimes you just have to know if you're still alive," Liberman said when asked why she cut herself.

She left the hospital against medical advice, and found herself in her living room with Haley, she said. "I felt like I couldn't control a rage, or something."

Liberman testified she remembers beating Haley with keys and then a chain dog collar. She remembers putting Haley on a snowy back porch in her nightgown and putting a candle in Noah's car seat, which caught fire and burned.

She also remembers pouring three bottles of bleach on the girl, but Liberman said she can't recall other abuse Haley described -- locking the girl in the coal cellar and burning a furnace filter there -- or locking her in the closet where police found Haley after a neighbor called 911.

Ditka offered one possible explanation for the attack. Haley testified that she had told her mother that she loved her father more.

Liberman said that conversation had happened days before the abuse began.

"There's no way I can logically justify why all these things happened," Liberman said. "It's horrendous to think about it."

The trial is expected to continue today before Common Pleas Judge Donna Jo McDaniel.

David Conti can be reached at dconti@tribweb.com or 412-320-7981.