LOUIS
LANZANO/APJoel Steinberg, here in 2004, allegedly owes more $15 million from a wrongful death verdict.
Infamous child killer Joel Steinberg is a deadbeat too — he hasn't been paying up on the $15 million wrongful death verdict against him, court papers say.
In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday, Michele Launders, 52, says the disbarred attorney has paid “no part of the principal of the judgment” she was awarded for her daughter's death, and wants him to pay up.
In 2003, Justice Louis York ordered Steinberg to pay Launders $15 million for the “heinous and outrageous crime.”
Launders was just 19 when she paid the lawyer $500 to find her newborn daughter a good home.
Instead, Steinberg illegally adopted the child himself, and took her home to his girlfriend, Hedda Nussbaum.
Steinberg repeatedly beat Nussbaum in front of Lisa, and allegedly would hit and abuse the girl as well.
Her short life came to a terrible end in 1987, when Steinberg struck the little girl and knocked her head against a wall, because, Nussbaum said, she’d “been staring at him.”
“For several hours afterward, no medical assistance had been summoned for her,” York wrote - even though Lisa started vomiting, had a “severe headache and an inability to catch her breath.”
Instead of tending to her, Steinberg went out to dinner while Nussbaum tried to take care of her. When he returned, he and Nussbaum smoked cocaine instead of calling 911.
SCHUMANN,
HEIDIMichele Launders filed court papers Tuesday against Steinberg, charging he still owes money from the 2003 suit.
Lisa drifted in and out of consciousness, and slipped into a coma eight-10 hours after her head was hit.
She died three days later.
A medical expert testified she could have survived if the couple had called 911.
Steinberg was convicted of manslaughter and spent 17 years in prison.
He challenged the wrongful death award, claiming he’d been a “doting” dad.
The new court filing says Steinberg, 73, made one payment — for $4,339.08 — in 2005, and has paid nothing since.
The suit says that sum counted a “partial payment” of the hundreds of thousands of dollars he now owes in interest.
Steinberg has boasted that he had a “very, very substantial” pension from his lawyer days, but those payments cannot be garnished.
Steinberg spent 17 years in prison for Lisa’s death.
He was reportedly working as a construction worker after his release.
Launders’ lawyer, Wayne Schaefer, would not say whether any efforts had been taken to garnish any paychecks Steinberg might currently be receiving.
“I can’t talk about what’s been done or what’s being contemplated,” he said.
He said he filed the new action now simply to keep the judgment viable.
Steinberg could not immediately be reached for comment at his Harlem apartment.
A man who answered the intercom at the building said Steinberg was out of town until Thursday.
With Chelsia Rose Marcius