Binion's home searched again

Homicide detectives quietly executed a search warrant last week at Ted Binion's Las Vegas home looking for more clues to his mysterious Sept. 17 death.

Detectives spent most of Thursday poring over items in the house and taking a new round of photos and fingerprints, sources close to the investigation said.

A police affidavit requesting the search warrant remains under seal.

Among those on hand at the search were James J. Brown, a lawyer for Binion's multimillion-dollar estate and Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger, who had been assigned to help detectives in the criminal probe. Roger is a member of the district attorney's elite Major Violators Unit.

In the past, detectives have not had to use a warrant to get inside the 2408 Palomino Lane home. But sources said a warrant may have been necessary last Thursday because of a district judge's decision in December indicating Binion's 26-year-old girlfriend, Sandy Murphy, was entitled to the house and its contents and $300,000 in cash. Murphy has been battling the estate, which claims Binion instructed Brown to cut Murphy out of his will the day before he died.

The estate has hired private detective Tom Dillard to investigate Ted's death and is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of anyone involved in the demise of the 55-year-old former gaming executive.

Murphy's lawyers, Oscar Goodman and David Chesnoff, declined comment on the latest search of the home. So did Richard Wright, another lawyer for Binion's estate.

Goodman and Chesnoff are said to be gearing up to fight last week's order by Chief District Judge Lee Gates, summoning Murphy and the three men accused of stealing a fortune in buried silver from Binion in Pahrump to court on Feb. 4. Gates wants the four to answer questions about the disappearance of valuables from Binion's Las Vegas home.

Lawyers for the estate obtained the order from Gates after Binion's older brother Jack Binion, the estate's executor, filed an affidavit heightening suspicions about the activities of Murphy and the chief silver theft suspect, Rick Tabish.

The elder Binion alleged that Murphy and Tabish, a 33-year-old Montana contractor, were having an affair at the time of his brother's death and either took the missing items or know their whereabouts.

Among the items missing, according to Binion, are a $300,000 collection of rare currency, several coin collections, a bag of diamonds and $20,000 in cash.

Tabish and two other men, Michael Milot and David Mattsen, were arrested in Pahrump on Sept. 19 after they allegedly had dug up $4 million in silver coins and bars that Ted had buried there. All three have been released on bail.

Murphy reported discovering Ted's body at the Palomino Lane home at 3:55 p.m. on Sept. 17 next to an empty bottle of the prescription sedative, Xanax.

Police found no signs of foul play, but toxicology tests showed Ted had lethal levels of both heroin and Xanax in his system. That led Clark County Coroner Ron Flud to classify the manner in which Ted died as "undetermined."

Tabish's lawyer, Louis Palazzo, described Jack Binion's affidavit last week as "rubbish" and "riddled" with inaccuracies.

Palazzo said he planned to fight any attempt to force his client to testify about the items missing from the home.

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