Legal minds confer over missing panties

District Judge Joseph Bonaventure scheduled a meeting in his chambers today with attorneys in the Ted Binion murder case to resolve a dispute over the missing panties of defendant Sandy Murphy.

Bonaventure reportedly is not thrilled with the idea of conducting a hearing Monday on the disappearance of the underwear.

Las Vegas 1, a local cable news channel, is planning to air the hearing live.

Murphy's attorney John Momot, who has accused jail officials of "illegally seizing" the panties, said this morning a hearing won't be necessary as long as prosecutors assure him the panties won't be used as evidence against his client.

Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger, who is prosecuting the 27-year-old Murphy, said in court papers Tuesday that authorities do not have her panties and would never conduct evidentiary tests in this case without a court order.

"The state of Nevada has meticulously followed the letter of the law in its search for the truth," Roger wrote. "It is absurd to suggest that law enforcement secretly seized the defendants undergarments."

He said an investigation by Paul Martin, the executive director of the Clark County Detention Center, was unable to locate the panties and found no wrongdoing on the part of any corrections officers.

Roger provided Bonaventure with a document signed by Murphy that shows she received all of her belongings when she was released from the detention center on Oct. 28.

Murphy, charged with her reported lover, Rick Tabish, in the September 1998 slaying of Binion, had spent a week behind bars for violating the terms of her house arrest.

Martin acknowledged in his investigative report that Murphy told corrections officers her panties were missing, but he added that when she was asked if she wanted to file a claim, she didn't respond to the officers.

Momot asked Bonaventure for the hearing after Murphy, who had lived with Binion until his death, reported to him Oct. 28 that her underwear was missing.

Last week, Momot and Murphy went to the detention center to examine four pairs of unclaimed black panties. But none turned out to be Murphy's.

Police believe Murphy and Tabish pumped Binion's body with drugs, suffocated him and stole his valuables. His body was discovered at his home next to an empty bottle of the prescription sedative, Xanax.

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