060797 In TV Interview, Teen-Ager Denies Killing Her Baby

By ROBERT HANLEY

 

The New Jersey teen-ager who is accused with her boyfriend of murdering their newborn son in a Delaware motel last November has denied that she killed the infant, according to the transcript of an interview televised Friday night on ABC.

In a teary appearance on "20/20" with her parents and new lawyer, Amy Grossberg, 18, said she mourned for the infant and had visited his grave.

"It was part of me," Ms. Grossberg told her interviewer, Barbara Walters. "My heart breaks. I would never hurt anything or anybody, especially something that has come from me."

In the transcript, Ms. Grossberg said she was terrified of receiving the death penalty and rejected the notion that she was a "baby killer."

"It's the furthest thing from the truth, the furthest thing," Ms. Grossberg said, according to the transcript.

Her mother, Sonye, who appeared with her husband, Alan, and Ms. Grossberg's new lawyer, Robert Gottlieb, was quoted as saying: "She wouldn't hurt her baby, anybody's baby. She's always so caring and giving."

The interview was Ms. Grossberg's first on television since she and her high school sweetheart, Brian Peterson, 18, both of Wyckoff, N.J., were arrested shortly after the infant was found dead in a plastic bag in a trash container behind a motel in Newark, Del.

The television appearance came as one of her original lawyers in Delaware, Charles Slanina, submitted court papers to withdraw from the case, and her new lawyer, Gottlieb, of Commack, N.Y., abandoned an earlier defense posture of shielding her from the news media and sought to create public sympathy for her.

In a telephone interview Friday, Gottlieb said he was considering filing a motion by July 1 seeking separate trials for Ms. Grossberg and Peterson, because, he said, in joint trials "certain evidence" is inadmissible. He declined to go into details, but said a jury considering charges against Ms. Grossberg should not hear Delaware's case against Peterson.

The chief prosecutor, Peter LeTang, refused to comment on the possibility that Delaware would seek separate trials for the teen-agers. But, he said, before the state can proceed with a joint trial, it must review statements that investigators have taken from the teen-agers and remove any incriminating or hearsay information one might have provided about the other.

Peterson did not appear with Ms. Grossberg in the "20/20" interview. But according to the transcript, Ms. Grossberg told Miss Walters that she thinks of marrying him, and dismissed the interviewer's suggestion that some think they may "turn against each other."

Gottlieb told Miss Walters that his client was innocent and appealed to prosecutors in Delaware to "take a fresh look at the case," according to the transcript.

"You know, it's never too late to do what is right based on the evidence," he was quoted as saying.

LeTang, the prosecutor, said after reviewing the transcript that he believed the Grossberg family and Gottlieb had committed a "serious breach" of a Delaware judge's order last November admonishing lawyers in the case to avoid prejudicial pretrial comments. He said he would decide after watching the telecast whether to seek court sanctions against them.

Gottlieb contended that the Grossberg family was not covered by the order and that he was free to assert his client's innocence.

Because of the order, he said, he had barred Miss Walters from asking about evidence in the case or the details surrounding the baby's birth and death on Nov. 12.