METRO DATELINES; Gun Charge Added In Steinberg Case

METRO DATELINES; Gun Charge Added In Steinberg Case

LEAD: A grand jury has added drug and weapons charges to the indictment against Joel Steinberg, a lawyer who has been charged with murder in the beating death of his illegally adopted daughter, Lisa, according to Robert M. Morgenthau, the Manhattan District Attorney.

A grand jury has added drug and weapons charges to the indictment against Joel Steinberg, a lawyer who has been charged with murder in the beating death of his illegally adopted daughter, Lisa, according to Robert M. Morgenthau, the Manhattan District Attorney.

The police found the 6-year-old child comatose and brain-dead on Nov. 2 in Mr. Steinberg's Greenwich Village apartment.

Mr. Morgenthau said yesterday that the police, who executed a search warrant at the apartment that same day, found quantities of heroin, cocaine and marijuana, as well as drug paraphernalia and drug-diluting substances, including ether. The police also found scales, crack pipes and drug recipe cards for cocaine and heroin derivatives, he said.

A .45-caliber revolver and cartridges for another gun were also found by the police, he added.

The new indictment, which supersedes a November indictment, charges that Mr. Steinberg abused the child during the two months before her death, from Sept. 6 to Nov. 2. The original indictment charged him with endangering the welfare of a child with respect to Lisa but this only applied to a single date, Nov. 2.

The new indictment also charges him with fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana, and second-degree criminal use of drug paraphernalia. The abuse charge is a felony; the rest are misdemeanors.(AP)