In the late 1980s Geraldo Rivera had a talk show. It was shortly after the world was rocked by the Joel Steinberg trial for the death of his adopted daughter Lisa. See all four short segments of the show to see Aaaron Britvan and Bill Pierece square off on private adoption. Part I of the four-part video of the program introduces the audience to Rebekah Dulik, a minor who was lured out-of-state and coached no to tell her parents where she was or that she was pregnant and having her child adopted. Judi Cochran of Children's Right of PA addresses Rebekah's situation.
In Part II Adopters, Lisa and Earl who obtained a child by placing over 100 ads in newspapers. A home study was done a week after they took the baby home from the hospital.
Aaron Britvan, notorious adoption attorney and Bill Pierce, NCFA, who speaks out AGAINST private adoption. Britvan claims the Joel Steinberg case was not an adoption. Pierce and Cochran both set him straight.
Part III Aaron Britvan talks about baby brokers and slipshod adoption attorneys.
Britvan and Bill Pierce of NCFA debate whether Joel Steinberg adopted or abducted Lisa. I speak out on behalf of the rights of the child in adoption, against private advertising, and for more regulations.
Part IV Aaron Britvan, Judi Cochran and Bill Pierce of NCFA discuss the usage of advertising for babies. Bill Pierece defends Edna Gladney agency. Pierce also compares ads for babies for sale to ads for escort services that are ads prostitution.
As the nation mourned of the
death of the beloved comic icon, I recalled my meeting with Joan Rivers when I
was guest on her short-lived a daytime talk show, in March 1990.
But the story of how that
came about began in 1987 with a horrific tragedy that garnered headlines of a
“house of horrors” and a six year old girl called Lisa, who died after years of
abuse.
In the dimly lit, filthy
Greenwhich Village home of attorney Joel Steinberg and Hedda Nussbaum where
Lisa had endured unspeakable abuses, police discovered a toddler boy tethered
to a table leg in soiled diapers with a bottle of rancid milk. He, like Lisa,
had been illegally adopted by the couple. Hedda, who once wrote children's
books, was badly abused, and drug addicted. She was given immunity to testify
against Joel who was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 8-1⁄3 to 25
years in prison. He was denied parole
twice and released after serving his time.
The media focused on how
Lisa’s abuse had occurred for six years and no one, even in Lisa's school, had
known or reported it. It was portrayed as an anomaly in terms of adoption that
"slipped through the cracks."
I was writing articles, speaking at local and national conferences, and
appearing on talk shows such as Geraldo, and the Morton Downey Jr. Show, twice
addressing the need to unseal adoption records. Lisa’s death sent shock waves
through the adoption community.
Adoptees of all ages
identified with the two victims while mothers who had been persuaded to
relinquish children for adoption in the hope they would be provided a better
life, worried about the safety and well-being of their children. Could such a
tragic end befall their children? How could this have happened?
These two adoptions were
labeled “illegal” because Steinberg had failed to file final adoptions papers.
Other than that, there was really not much difference between these adoptions
and any other privately arranged, independent adoption. It was not then, and is
still today, not uncommon or illegal for doctors and attorneys to arrange the
transfer of custody of infants without an adoption agency involved in the
process.
In order to bring light to
the loopholes in the adoption process, I organized a candle light vigil from
Lisa's home to her Greenwich Village elementary a school. The march was televised
and garnered news coverage we hoped would help prevent other such tragedies.
At the same time, I worked
with the attorney general's office to identify and locate the mother of the
toddler boy called Mitchell. I discovered that his mother was a teenager named
Nicole Smigel who had kept her pregnancy a secret from her mother who had just
hours to deal with finding out about the pregnancy and a baby being born.The doctor who delivered the child said he
had a friend (Joel Steinberg) who would adopt the baby. Nicole's mother, Grace
Ann Smigel made all the arrangements.
I contacted Grace Ann and
she was initially extremely vested in maintaining the secret. She had done
everything so quickly. She never told her husband, Nicole's father or Nicole's
grandmother. Nor did the baby father's know anything about his son or the decision
to have him adopted. Grace Ann couldn't bear to break it to them that the baby
in the headlines was THEIRS! She wanted to keep it all buried and just allow
the child to be re-adopted by another family.
I called Grace Ann over a
period of weeks. Every time we spoke I
impressed upon her that she and her grandson were given a second chance and
that the only way she could be assured of his safety and well-being was to
reclaim him. Finally, she and Nicole told the family the truth and reclaimed
Nicole's son who she named him Travis.
My 1988 book, “shedding
light on…The Dark Side of Adoption” was published with a dedication to Lisa.
And so, Joan Rivers, looking
for hot trendy news issues for The Joan Rivers Show invited Grace Ann to
describe how her grandson wound up in the midst of this front page horror
story. Joan also wanted an "expert" to address adoption laws and
explain how this was allowed to occur, and Grace Anne wanted me to be there
with her. And so the two of us were
guests on the show along with Joyce Johnson author of “What Lisa Knew.”
Also appearing on that same
Joan Rivers Show was Joan’s friend Howard Stern who recently spoke at her
funeral and Angela Bowie, former wife of David Bowie who had just written a
tell-all that included how she caught her husband in bed with Mick Jagger! (I remember being concerned for her young
daughter was there with her, backstage, as she revealed this.)
My sister attended the
taping with me as did some colleagues.
The Joan we met was professional and obviously wanting to be seen as
more serious than her usual comedic persona by conducting an interview about a
hot, but unpleasant topic as child abuse, as part of a series she was doing on
secret-keeping.
When Joan interviewed Grace
Ann, she was initially incredulous that her 17-year-old daughter had
successfully hidden a pregnancy for more than nine months, especially from her
own mother. Nicole had worn loose clothing and pooh-poohed questions about her
modest weight gain. Joan, whose own daughter Melissa was not more than a
teenager at the time, appeared sincere in her empathy with Grace Ann’s dilemma
in trying to protect everyone.
Apparently, the public
preferred Joan as a jokester, however, and the show was soon cancelled. Grace
Ann and Nicole kept in touch with me, sending holiday cards and photos of
Travis, and updated me until he got into college. My second book, THE STORK
MARKET: America's Multi-Billion Dollar Unregulated Adoption Industry (2008) tells
the story with photos.
WCBS-TC News coverage of the candlelight vigil for Lisa
