Murphy ups ante in Binion case

The stakes were raised this week for a central figure in the criminal probe into Ted Binion's death and the battle over his multimillion-dollar estate.

Lawyers for Sandy Murphy, Binion's live-in girlfriend, upped the ante on Wednesday, when they told a judge she won't testify under oath next Thursday about assets missing from Binion's estate unless she receives immunity from prosecution.

Attorneys R. Gardner Jolley, Oscar Goodman and David Chesnoff told District Judge Michael Cherry during an hourlong hearing that they are instructing Murphy to assert her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination on the witness stand. The lawyers believe Murphy is a target in the criminal investigation.

But by refusing to help the estate gather its assets, Murphy risks losing all or part of her inheritance from Binion. Another judge recently ruled she was entitled to Binion's 2408 Palomino Lane home, its contents and $300,000 in cash, despite a claim by the estate that Binion wanted her cut out of his will.

"She's in a legal box of her own making," charged Richard Wright, one of several high-powered attorneys representing Binion's estate. Harry Claiborne, a former federal judge, also is on the estate's legal team.

Wright, a veteran criminal defense lawyer, said he has never seen anyone make such a public plea for immunity.

"Apparently, she's begging for what we call an immunity bath," Wright said. "That happens when someone who has something to hide wants to be the first one to go before authorities to be cleansed and protected."

But one of Murphy's high-profile lawyers, Oscar Goodman, countered that Murphy is not looking to make a deal with police.

"I'm not begging for anything," Goodman said. "I'm trying to protect a client against (the estate's) greed and aggression.

"Knowing the kind of power these people exert and the pressures they can bring, I'm not going to let her be anybody's sacrificial lamb."

The piercing legal rhetoric illustrates one of the many bizarre happenings in this case that is pitting some of the most respected and well-known criminal defense lawyers in Las Vegas against each other. Goodman, Wright, Chesnoff and Claiborne all are good friends who are used to being on the same side.

None of these men is regarded for his expertise in estate matters, but all have come to have a stake in this case because of their longtime ties to Binion, his family and his friends.

Cherry, who disclosed his own ties to the Binion family before Wednesday's hearing, denied Goodman's request to block Murphy's testimony next week. That increased the likelihood she will assert her Fifth Amendment right, a constitutional privilege she once took during a state Gaming Control Board investigation of Binion.

The judge encouraged both sides to find a way to work out their differences before next Thursday's hearing, even if it means persuading the district attorney's office, which is overseeing the criminal investigation, to obtain a grant of immunity.

But the brewing hostility between the defense teams is expected to make it difficult to reach an agreement.

The district attorney's office also isn't ready to strike a deal with Murphy.

Bill Koot, chief of the district attorney's Major Violators Unit, said his office has no authority to get immunity for Murphy in the estate case and doesn't plan to seek it for her in the criminal investigation.

It was the clearest indication yet that authorities consider Murphy the chief target in the probe into Binion's Sept. 17 death. Murphy has previously refused to cooperate with homicide detectives upon the advice of her lawyers.

Neither Koot nor detectives have publicly stated Murphy is a suspect, but they have been investigating her activities before and after his death.

Earlier this month, detectives executed a search warrant at Binion's Palomino Lane home looking for more clues to his death. Police 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 silver that Binion had buried in an underground vault in Pahrump.

Binion's brother, Jack Binion, who oversees the estate, has alleged that Murphy and Tabish were having an affair at the time of the attempted theft, less than 36 hours after Binion died.

Tabish also has been ordered to appear in court Thursday to explain what happened to the valuables in Binion's home. Among the items missing is a $300,000 collection of rare currency.

Murphy reported discovering Binion's body at his home Sept. 17 next to an empty bottle of the prescription sedative Xanax. Police found no signs 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.

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