THE NEW YORK TIMES

A newborn baby was rescued from a trash compactor in Brooklyn yesterday morning when two maintenance men heard the baby's cries just as they were about to start the crushing machine's motors, the police said.

Detectives said the mother was a 12-year-old girl who admitted that she had thrown the baby down a trash chute shortly after giving birth in her apartment in the building. The 12-year-old, whose name was not released, had not been charged with a crime last night.

The maintenance workers heard the baby's cries about 9:45 A.M. and called the police. A patrol sergeant, Philip Insardi, said he crawled through the compactor's small metal doors and shined a flashlight onto the mound of garbage that was about to be squeezed between the machine's walls.

"His feet were sticking out from under some newspapers," Sergeant Insardi said. "There was the baby, lying on top of the garbage. He wasn't making a peep when I got there."

If the machine had started, he said, "the kid was history."

The sergeant wrapped the infant in his shirt and handed him to an ambulance crew. The child, with his umbilical cord still attached, was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where he was treated for hypothermia, the police said.

The 6-pound 10-ounce infant was in stable condition last night in the care of nurses, who named him Trevor, said Mimi Grinker, a hospital spokeswoman. The young mother was also in the hospital for observation. No Injury Despite Fall

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Investigators said the baby had not been injured by the long fall down the chute. "It's a miracle, alright," Sergeant Insardi said.

In a separate incident about a mile away in the East New York section of Brooklyn, a 37-year-old woman was charged yesterday with the strangulation of her newborn son, whose body was found in a garbage bag at a housing project on Tuesday.

Yesterday morning, after the baby was rescued from the trash compactor, detectives from the 73d Precinct canvassed residents of the six-story apartment building at 37 New Lots Avenue in the East New York section and found a woman in apartment 4E, Gladys Perry, who said she believed her 12-year-old daughter was the baby's mother. The detectives then went to Thelma J. Hamilton Junior High School at 985 Rockaway Avenue and took the teen-ager out of class.

"She denied it at first," said Sgt. Timothy Phelan of the 73d Precinct squad. "We took her to Brookdale. The doctors examined her and said she had just given birth."

Confronted by the doctors, the girl admitted to detectives that she had given birth in her fourth-floor apartment and had dropped the infant down the chute, the police said.

"She is not admitting who the father is or that she even had sex," Lieut. Eugene Albright said. She would also not say why she tried to dispose of the baby, he said.

Lieutenant Albright said the 12-year-old lived with two brothers and Mrs. Perry. Although Mrs. Perry told the police that the teen-ager was her daughter, investigators said last night that it was unclear what their relationship is.

Detectives said the baby was born sometime in the early morning. The mother apparently abandoned the baby about 7 A.M., they said.

Lieutenant Albright said Mrs. Perry had told investigators that she worked at night and was not in the apartment when the baby was born. No charges had been filed against her last night, and investigators were still trying to determine whether she was culpable.

The infant will be placed in foster care when he leaves the hospital, the police said.

The boy was born in a six-story tenement on the corner of Stone Avenue, a depressed area of littered streets, empty lots and broken sidewalks. A security guard is posted at an iron gate in front of the building, and floodlights illuminate the courtyard.

None of the neighbors seemed to be aware that the teen-ager was pregnant. Several expressed shock that the police believe she tried to kill her baby.

"I was hurt because it was a baby having a baby," said a woman who lives on the same floor and asked not to be identified. "She should have been getting the proper help. I could have taken the baby."

In the earlier incident, the police found the body of a newborn boy, with his umbilical cord attached, stuffed into a plastic garbage bag in front of the Pink Housing Project at 13-06 Loring Avenue at 9:20 A.M. Tuesday.

The infant's mother, Debra Larrier, had given birth in her apartment at the project a few hours earlier, said Officer Fred Weiner, a police spokesman. He said Ms. Larrier developed complications from the birth and went to Kings County Hospital, leaving her son's body in a garbage bag at the curb., he said.

At the hospital, doctors determined that she had just given birth. They notified the police, who searched her apartment and the bags of garbage piled in front of the project.

Ms. Larrier was arrested yesterday at 5 P.M. and charged with homicide. The Medical Examiner's Officer determined that the infant had died of strangulation, the police said.