012297 Bail Granted to Teen-Agers in Baby Death

By JAN HOFFMAN

WILMINGTON, Del. -- Two months after they were put in jail and charged with murdering their newborn son and dumping him in a motel trash bin, two New Jersey teen-agers finally won the right Tuesday to go home.

But while they entered a packed courtroom smiling brightly in anticipation of their release on bail, they returned to prison holding cells looking crestfallen. Negotiations had stumbled temporarily over logistical problems in setting up electronic monitoring at their New Jersey homes.

After nearly an hourlong hearing, Judge Henry duPont Ridgely of Superior Court set bail at $300,000 each for Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson, ordered them to live at their respective parents' homes in the Bergen County town of Wyckoff, to abide by a curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. and to wear ankle bracelets that would allow their curfews to be monitored electronically.

The courtroom was jammed with spectators and reporters who have followed both because each teen-ager comes from a well-to-do background and because they could face the death penalty if convicted.

Despite the severity of the charge, Ridgely granted bail, he said, because of their character references, strong ties to their communities and lack of criminal records. To further assure that they were not likely to flee, the two agreed to turn in their passports.

Prosecutors had opposed bail, which they can do in Delaware if a capital crime has been charged. But they dropped their opposition last week, rather than going through a lengthy hearing in which they would have had to show much of the evidence about the cause of death of the newborn, who was found in a plastic bag in a Dumpster outside a Newark, Del., motel on Nov. 12.

The medical examiner has said that the baby died from blunt head trauma and shaking. Peter N. Letang, a deputy attorney general, said Tuesday that the state might also include the alternative theories of hypothermia and asphyxia as "possible causes." Hypothermia could result from the baby having been left out in the cold, and asphyxia could have been caused by the baby suffocating in the plastic bag. Neither the autopsy nor the official death certificate have been released yet. Letang said that the Delaware medical examiner's office was consulting with offices from out of state on the case.

The deputy attorney general said that his office has not yet decided whether the death penalty will be sought in this case and denied that his agreement to allow bail translated into a backing off from that sentence. But he did acknowledge that he had dropped his opposition, in part, to foreclose the need for a hearing that would have revealed his evidence. "Most people would say it's not a good idea to put your case on at this time," he said.

At the bail hearing Tuesday, Ms. Grossberg and Peterson initially seemed to be in jaunty spirits. She has been in the general population at a nearby women's correctional center, but Peterson had been locked in a single cell 23 hours a day at a nearby men's prison. One of his lawyers, Joseph Hurley, said that was for Peterson's own protection. Men charged with abusing or murdering children are often assaulted in prison, he said.

Ms. Grossberg, 18, was no longer hiding beneath sheaves of her long, lightened brown hair as she had been in earlier appearances. Now half of it was pinned off her face with a black barrette; she wore a jacket-style black cardigan over a long black skirt and black boots. Peterson, who is also 18, wore a print tie, a powder blue shirt, khaki pants and sneakers. They smiled softly at each other and their lawyers, and, in the moments before the hearing started, they seemed to be chatting and laughing happily.

But their demeanors grew sober as prosecutors and defense lawyers clashed over the delay involved in setting up the interstate monitoring. Finally, Judge Ridgely said he would allow the two to leave prison but remain in private houses in Delaware until a New Jersey system could be established. Each family did post the cash bail, using their own resources and borrowing from friends, the parents' lawyers said. At the end of the day, while the couple waited in separate holding cells, efforts were being made to secure two Wilmington homes.

As the two teen-agers were led out of the courtroom, their mothers rushed forward, trying to flash them tremulous smiles. Peterson, who like Ms. Grossberg looks far younger than his age, shot his mother a mournful shrug while Ms. Grossberg kept her head down as she was led out.

The couple were college freshmen this fall -- he at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, she at the University of Delaware. They are no longer enrolled in their schools. But lawyers said that Ms. Grossberg has a job waiting for her in Bergen County.

Not having the couple to interview, reporters had to settle for the lawyers, a prospect that Hurley, for one, seemed to relish. Wearing a fur-lined coat, his trademark polka-dot tie and patent leather tasseled shoes, Hurley was asked what his client would do upon release. The lawyer grinned and said, "Hopefully, he'll be like a normal 18-year-old kid who's facing the death penalty -- whatever that is."