Judge does not disqualify lawyers in Binion civil case

Wednesday, Dec. 1, 1999 | 10:45 a.m.

Attorneys representing the estate of the late Lonnie "Ted" Binion will be allowed to remain on the case, a judge ruled Tuesday.

District Judge Michael Cherry rejected a request from attorneys for murder defendants Rick Tabish and Sandra Murphy to remove three attorneys working on civil proceedings in the case.

Attorney Robert Murdock, who represents Tabish, said the three attorneys are certain to be called as witnesses in civil and criminal proceedings arising from Binion's death.

The attorneys were Bruce Judd and Richard Wright, who represent the estate, and Harry Claiborne, who represents Binion's daughter, Bonnie Binion.

The three attorneys may remain on the cases, which pit their clients against the two people charged with murder in the death of the former casino executive, Cherry ruled.

He noted the criminal trial of Tabish and Murphy, scheduled to begin in March, will be concluded long before the civil cases make it to trial.

The issue could be revisited prior to any civil trials if the attorneys are called to testify in the criminal trial and their testimony proves important, Cherry said.

Prosecutors say Binion in September 1998 was forced to ingest lethal amounts of heroin and the prescribed sedative Xanax and then suffocated at the Las Vegas home he shared with Murphy.