Lawyers seeking to block testimony of Binion girlfriend

Lawyers for Ted Binion's girlfriend have filed papers in District Court to block her Feb. 4 testimony in the legal battle over the late gaming executive's multimillion-dollar estate.

In an 11-page motion, filed late Friday, attorneys R. Gardner Jolley, Oscar Goodman and David Chesnoff accused the estate of wrongly trying to use Sandy Murphy's upcoming testimony to link her to Binion's Sept. 17 death.

"The representatives of the estate are nothing more than a stalking horse for the police and district attorney's office with whom they have met on several occasions regarding the investigation of Ted Binion's death," the lawyers said.

They charged that the estate is more interested in tying Murphy to her boyfriend's death than finding out what happened to missing valuables from his home.

"Therefore, it is the belief of Murphy's attorneys that the information sought is not to determine whether Murphy has property in her possession belonging to the estate, but instead to seek evidence in support of future criminal allegations against Murphy," the lawyers said.

That, they said, is an abuse of the discovery process.

Earlier this month, homicide detectives executed a search warrant at Binion's 2408 Palomino Lane home looking for more clues to his death. Detectives also issued grand jury subpoenas recently for records that would document the relationship between Murphy and Rick Tabish, a Montana contractor accused of trying to steal a fortune in buried silver from Binion in Pahrump after his death.

Murphy's lawyers charged in their court papers that the estate is trying to use the battle over Murphy's inheritance to obtain evidence for police of a romantic relationship between Murphy and Tabish. The lawyers did not deny an affair took place, but they said it was irrelevant in the estate case.

Last month, before he joined the Nevada Supreme Court, then-Chief District Judge Myron Leavitt ruled that Murphy was entitled to the home, its contents and $300,000, despite a claim by the estate that Binion had instructed his attorney to cut Murphy out of the will the day before he died.

Murphy reported discovering Binion's body at his home next to an empty bottle of the prescription sedative Xanax. Police found no signs of foul play, but drug tests later found that Binion had deadly amounts of Xanax and heroin in his body. Clark County Coroner Ron Flud has refused to classify the manner in which Binion died as a suicide or an accidental drug overdose.

Both Murphy and Tabish have declined to be interviewed by homicide detectives about Binion's death.

In their papers, Murphy's lawyers said the Feb. 4 court testimony in the estate case should be halted because they never had a chance to present arguments to the judge who ordered the testimony.

On Jan. 12, Chief District Judge Lee Gates ordered Murphy, Tabish and two other suspects in the Pahrump silver theft case to appear in court next month to answer questions about the items missing from Binion's home. Among the valuables unaccounted for is a $300,000 collection of rare currency.

Gates took his action after receiving a sworn affidavit from Binion's brother, Jack Binion, who had cast suspicion on the activities of Murphy and Tabish.

Murphy's lawyers said they learned that Binion secretly had gone to Gates in a Jan. 12 Sun story.

The attorneys later filed a legal challenge under their rights in the case that automatically removed Gates from overseeing the estate. District Judge Michael Cherry now has the case.

In their papers on Friday, Murphy lawyers also sought to halt a deposition this week in California of Murphy's girlfriend, Linda Susan Carroll. Murphy reportedly had a long conversation with Carroll on the night Binion died.

The attorneys also asked to stop this week's deposition of officials at the two posh Beverly Hills hotels, where Murphy and Tabish spent time together in the months leading up to Binion's death.

They charged the depositions are part of an effort to harass Murphy "in every way possible to try to connect her to the death of Ted Binion."

Cherry has set a hearing on the requests at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

archive