I also posted this over in Candyland/BB http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/people/features/9607/index.html
This is going to be one of my pet quotes from Darnay. Can you believe it? Referring to Joel Steinberg, of course. demonized????????!!!!!!!!!!????????? Unfair and distorted coverage????????!!!!!!!!!!! I wonder if Lisa Steinberg feels that way? Oh, don't get me started...................
Joel Steinberg is a lying bastid, and Darnay Hoffmann is a stupid idiot. He should have gotten life imprisonment with no parole for what he did to little Lisa. I am so sick of these child abusers and killers and their pathetic excuses. Lisa never stood a chance - she was just a little girl. I had great empathy for Hedda, but she could have saved Lisa and she didn't. Darnay is a third-rate lawyer who should have stayed out of the JBR case, because he did more harm than he did good. I think he's looney hanging out with the likes of Joel Steinberg.
Thanks for posting the article, Barbara. I am in the minority but I have never thought that anybody proved Joel rather than Hedda killed Lisa. I know Hedda was beaten up, terribly, and is permanently scarred. But she was alone with Lisa for hours before and after the injury that killed her. Remember the jury hung on the murder charges and convicted Joel of manslaughter. They are both whack jobs, and they were both massively addicted to freebase cocaine at the time of the murder. They also have complicated psychosexual personalities - Hedda's the masochist of all masochists, and I really agree with the statement in the article that she was "being the top from the bottom" sado-masochistically. A way of controlling things. Because of her beaten condition and her appearance, all assumed she couldn't/wouldn't have done it, and didn't deserve prison. She got off, not of just the murder, but child abuse charges regarding Lisa and the other stolen child (a boy who became a high school athletic star on Long Island), kidnapping in regard to the male child, and big time drug possession and dealing charges. The drug sentencing laws of NY at the time (the Rockefeller laws) could have put her away for twenty years. And it's plain none of my business, I suppose, but I don't like her occasional appearances on Larry King Live. She doesn't come across as too regretful of what happened to LISA, but of what happened to HEDDA. She doesn't seem to think of herself as guilty of anything.
I too, am in the minority. Hedda AND Joel should have gone to prison. It doesn't matter (to me anyway), WHO did the most damage. THIS WAS JUST A LITTLE GIRL These two ADULTS were responsible for her care and well being. Neither one of them did so. It doesn't matter who hit her more, who was meaner, who struck the first blow, yada yada Joel was LEGAL guardian and Hedda lived there. Joel deserved to be in prison and in my opinion, battered or not, Hedda should have received punishment Hedda was a legal adult when she chose the path of "Joel", and she is entitled to make any decision she wants. LISA HAD NO SUCH CHOICE!
Well, guess another minority poster here.... I don't care what Joel did to Hedda, she willfully took drugs and bought into his particular brand of hell. She accepted responsibility as a mother to those children, however illegally they were attained, and she was there when Lisa was beaten and lay dying in that filthy apartment. Who did the hitting is only a minor detail, IMO. Hedda could have saved the child, but she didn't. That she sees in hindsight how "victimized" she herself was is no excuse. What that child lived in and went through...I think they should have locked both those monsters up and thrown away the key. That either one of them is walking free now is an abomination. The jury, judge, and DA that let this happen should be ashamed until the day they die.
OH...and Darnay defending Joel, who is basically human excrement, says it all about who Darnay is. That gutter candy sucks up to Darnay like he's the second coming...so to speak...perfectly in character for her, as well.
If an animal is in a lot of pain it tends to lose its friendliness and to LASH & STRIKE OUT at others. If Hedda was in that much pain, she might have done the ol' shi'it runs downhill thing and hit the kid. After all, the man comes home and hits the woman, who's SHE gonna hit...not that it's right, just that sometimes shi'it runs down to the next level...unfortunately. It takes a strong woman to break the cycle and to say, No, I'm not going to be like s/he is. I'm going to cherish the child, despite all odds. That's a strong one, to be sure.
