Lawyer Indicted In the Slaying Of His Daughter
Lawyer Indicted In the Slaying Of His Daughter
By ROBERT D. MCFADDEN
LEAD: A Manhattan grand jury indicted a Greenwich Village lawyer yesterday in the murder of his 6-year-old adopted daughter, who died Thursday of a brain hemorrhage and other injuries suffered last weekend in what authorities called a savage beating.
A Manhattan grand jury indicted a Greenwich Village lawyer yesterday in the murder of his 6-year-old adopted daughter, who died Thursday of a brain hemorrhage and other injuries suffered last weekend in what authorities called a savage beating.
The defendant, Joel B. Steinberg, 46, was charged in the four-count indictment with second-degree homicide, first-degree manslaughter and endangering the welfare of the girl, Elizabeth, and her adopted brother, Mitchell, 16 months old. If convicted, he would face 25 years to life in jail.
Held without bail in a suicide watch at Rikers Island, Mr. Steinberg did not appear before the grand jury. He pleaded not guilty Tuesday to assault and attempted murder charges filed after the police found the battered girl in a coma Monday at his apartment at 14 West 10th Street.
No indictment was returned immediately against the girl's adoptive mother, Hedda Nussbaum, 45, who has indicated she will waive immunity and testify before the grand jury when she is physically able. She is in custody at a Queens hospital and is being treated for injuries the police say were inflicted by Mr. Steinberg in repeated beatings. Removed From Respirator
Battered and in a coma, Elizabeth, a first-grader at P.S. 41 who was known to classmates and teachers as a bright, happy child, was rushed Monday morning to St. Vincent's Hospital, where she suffered brain death - the legal definition of death in New York State - on Wednesday.
A day later, hospital officials, acting under State Health Department guidelines that free a hospital from obligations to treat a person who has irrevocably lost brain function, removed her from the respirator that had sustained her heart and lungs and she was pronounced dead.
Mitchell Steinberg, who was found tethered to a chair but unharmed, has been placed in a foster home by the city.
At a late-afternoon news conference, the District Attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, said a dozen witnesses - police officers, doctors and the couple's neighbors - had appeared before the grand jury, but that Mr. Steinberg had refused to testify. 'A Depraved Indifference'
Mr. Morgenthau said the grand jury charged that Mr. Steinberg killed the girl by ''recklessly engaging in conduct which created a grave risk of death'' under circumstances ''evincing a depraved indifference to human life.'' He gave few details of the case and deflected questions about the evidence and the continuing investigation.
Mr. Steinberg is to be arraigned in State Supreme Court Nov. 23, but it is unlikely that his trial will be held before next year. Besides the circumstances of the adoptions, authorities are looking into drugs and cash found in Mr. Steinberg's apartment.
The District Attorney, whose demeanor was grim as he spoke of the case, had told reporters earlier in the day that it was ''one of the most tragic and horrible cases that we've seen,'' and he referred to the actions that led to the death as ''totally wanton and reckless.''
Mr. Morgenthau, in announcing the indictment, said that no adoption papers had been found for either Elizabeth or Mitchell, but that the biological mothers of both children had been identified. He declined to make the names public, however, and said only that they were residents of New York State.
He appeared to criticize state laws that allow the private placement of adopted children without court sanction or extensive state checks on the background and character of the prospective parents.
''If there had been a thorough background investigation, there is a good chance he would not have been granted custody,'' Mr. Morgenthau said, referring to Mr. Steinberg.
Mr. Morgenthau noted that Ms. Nussbaum had been offered ''no deal'' to testify before the grand jury. Such testimony, officials said, would not necessarily indicate that she would testify against Mr. Steinberg, only that she intended to present evidence in her own defense.
Asked if he considered Ms. Nussbaum a victim in the case, Mr. Morgenthau said, ''She might be the victim of a beating or a series of beatings, but what we are concerned with now is that she had custody of this child and so bears responsibility.''
Ms. Nussbaum pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges in an arraignment Thursday at the City Hospital Center at Elmhurst, Queens, where she is being treated.