LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- The attorney who claimed he saw the Vicki Morgan videotapes showing government officials in sex acts has been charged with threatening a parole officer who refused to testify on behalf of a client.
Attorney Robert K. Steinberg was charged Monday with making an annoying phone call, attempting to use threats or violence to deter an executive officer from doing her duty and threatening a witness, the Daily News of Los Angeles reported.
The newspaper said the charges stem from a March 22 telephone call the attorney allegedly made to a state parole officer after she refused to recommend that Steinberg's client not receive a 90-day jail sentence for failing to register as a sex offender.
After she refused, she said, Steinberg's voice changed to a menacing, threatening tone.
'I'm out to hurt you. You are a viciousperson. You should not be a parole officer,' Steinberg said to the officer, according to a police report.
Last year Steinberg claimed he had seen videotapes showing Miss Morgan at sex parties with her former lover, department store heir Alfred Bloomingdale, and Reagan administration officials.
Bloomingdale, who died of cancer in 1982, was a member of Reagan's 'kitchen Cabinet.' Miss Morgan was found bludgeoned to death in July. Her former roommate, Marvin Pancoast, is scheduled to stand trial for the murder April 25.
The day after Steinberg claimed to have the tapes he said they were stolen from a gym bag. He then was indicted by the County Grand Jury on a misdemeanor count of filing a false police report stemming from the purported theft of the videotapes.
His trial on the tape charges is scheduled for June 1 in Beverly Hills Municipal Court. He could be jailed for six months if proven guilty.
Steinberg is scheduled to be arraigned on the new charges April 11 in West Los Angeles Municipal Court. If convicted on all three misdemeanor counts, Steinberg could be sentenced to 1 years in the county jail and fined $1,500.
