The former live-in lover of a lawyer accused of beating his illegally adopted 6-year-old daughter to death described a life of drug use and hypnotism, and testified the girl was sexually abused at age 2.
In her third day of cross-examination by the defense in state court Tuesday, Hedda Nussbaum admitted using heroin, cocaine and LSD, and said defendant Joel Steinberg told her she had the power to put people in a trance.Steinberg's attorney, Ira London, attempted to discredit Nussbaum's testimony for the prosecution with repeated questions about drug use, hypnotism and an imaginary cult.
Steinberg, a 47-year-old disbarred lawyer, is charged with murder in the November 1987 beating death of Lisa Steinberg, whom he illegally obtained at birth from an unmarried teenager.