Meeting explores Binion death

Wednesday, Dec. 9, 1998 | 11:05 a.m.

Law-enforcement officials are being tight-lipped about a high-level meeting in the district attorney's office Tuesday on the investigation into the death of former Horseshoe Club executive Ted Binion.

The Metro homicide team looking into Binion's mysterious Sept. 17 death met for about 90 minutes with District Attorney Stewart Bell, Coroner Ron Flud and representatives of Binion's multimillion-dollar estate, attorney Richard Wright and private detective Tom Dillard. Also present were Metro Homicide Lt. Wayne Petersen and Bill Koot, chief of the district attorney's Major Violators Unit.

"The investigation is continuing," Petersen said Tuesday after the meeting. "There still are things that need to be done."

Bell said today that the meeting was called to allow detectives to brief the district attorney's office on the status of the high-profile investigation.

"Obviously, there are some suspicious circumstances that necessitate them continuing to investigate," Bell said. "It's a quantum leap from suspicious circumstances to evidence of a crime."

Bell, Petersen and others at Tuesday's meeting, including Flud, declined to comment on what was discussed. They apparently struck an agreement not to talk about the specifics of the investigation with reporters.

For the past several weeks, the district attorney's office has been advising homicide detectives about the kind of evidence needed to take the case to a county grand jury. Detectives also have been keeping open the possibility of arresting suspects.

So far, however, Bell, Petersen and Flud all have been reluctant to call Binion's death a homicide, though his estate is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for his demise.

Binion's body was discovered Sept. 17 by his girlfriend, Sandy Murphy, at his home next to an empty bottle of the prescription sedative Xanax.

Police found no evidence of foul play at the scene of his death, and an autopsy did not uncover signs of trauma on his body. But drug tests concluded that the 55-year-old Binion had lethal amounts of both heroin and Xanax in his body. That led Flud to classify the manner in which Binion died as "undetermined."

Less than 36 hours after Binion's death, Rick Tabish, a Montana contractor who had befriended Binion, was arrested in Pahrump with two others allegedly trying to steal a fortune in silver Binion had buried.

Sheriff's deputies making the arrests uncovered documentation of a possible romantic relationship between Tabish and Murphy. The two were seen together at a posh Beverly Hills hotel the weekend before Binion died.

One day before his death, Binion had asked his lawyer to cut Murphy out of his will, and he hired a private detective to follow her around town.

Both Tabish and Murphy have refused to talk to police, but through their lawyers, they have denied having anything to do with Binion's death.

A host of witnesses have told the Sun about other suspicious circumstances surrounding Binion's death.

Binion's expensive coin and currency collection, for example, remains unaccounted for at his home. Police also found no valuables in Binion's safe at his home.