Judge affirms order requiring testimony from Binion girlfriend

District Judge Michael Cherry today refused to block the Feb. 4 testimony of Ted Binion's girlfriend in the legal battle over the multimillion-dollar estate of the late gaming executive.

And lawyers for Sandy Murphy told the judge she would assert her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination if forced to answer questions about missing assets from Binion's estate without a grant of immunity from criminal prosecution.

Attorneys R. Gardner Jolley, Oscar Goodman and David Chesnoff said they were concerned that Murphy could face criminal liability if she testified without immunity because of a police investigation that appears to be targeting her as a suspect in Binion's Sept. 17 death.

"She will assert whatever privileges that are available to her," Goodman said during the hourlong hearing.

But in ordering her testimony, Cherry said: "I want her to come forward. If she takes the Fifth Amendment, we'll go from there."

Cherry said his main concern now is to help Binion's estate get a full accounting of Binion's assets.

He encouraged both sides to work out an immunity deal with the district attorney's office before next week's hearing on the items missing from Binion's home.

The estate's lawyers, Bruce Judd, James J. Brown, Richard Wright and Harry Claiborne told Cherry that they believe Murphy either took the valuables after his death or knows of their whereabouts. Among the missing items is a $300,000 collection of rare currency.

In court papers last week, Murphy's attorneys accused the estate of wrongly trying to use Murphy's testimony to link her to Binion's Sept. 17 death.

They charged that the estate was a "stalking horse" for police and was more interested in tying Murphy to the death than finding out what happened to the missing valuables from his home.

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

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

Murphy reported discovering Binion's body at his home Sept. 17 next to an empty bottle of the prescription sedative Xanax. Police found no sign of foul play, but drug tests later discovered 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.

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