Suspect in Binion case met with sister, sought deal

Friday, Jan. 29, 1999 | 11:35 a.m.

Horseshoe Club owner Becky Behnen said Thursday that a man who has come under suspicion in the death of her brother, Ted Binion, secretly sought her help last month to work out a deal with the FBI.

Behnen told the Sun that Montana contractor Rick Tabish, who also has been charged with trying to steal a fortune in silver from Binion, met with her for two hours on Dec. 16 at her Las Vegas home to discuss involving the FBI in the investigation of her brother's death.

"I never could figure out why he was doing this," Behnen said. "He just indicated he wanted to get with the FBI."

Behnen, the first to suspect foul play in Binion's Sept. 17 death, said she alerted the FBI after Tabish had contacted her. She said she had met beforehand with John Plunkett, supervisor of the FBI's Organized Crime Squad in Las Vegas.

Plunkett declined comment Thursday.

FBI sources said Tabish never arranged a subsequent rendezvous with agents to discuss what he had to offer. An agent was assigned to stay in touch with Behnen, the sources added, but the FBI is not investigating anything Tabish told the Horseshoe boss.

Tabish's lawyer, Louis Palazzo, on Thursday did not deny Tabish had met with Behnen, and he would not discuss why Tabish had sought her out.

But he confirmed that his client never went to the FBI.

"My understanding is that the only persons who have gone to the FBI have been those persons in the Behnen camp," Palazzo said. "Rick doesn't need to deal with the FBI or anybody else because he's done nothing wrong."

Tabish, arrested Sept. 19 for allegedly trying to steal $4 million in silver from Binion in Pahrump, and the late gaming executive's 26-year-old girlfriend, Sandy Murphy, reportedly have become the focus of a police investigation into Binion's death. Both have refused to cooperate with homicide detectives.

On Wednesday, Murphy's lawyers said Murphy won't testify at a court next week in the battle over Binion's multimillion-dollar estate without a grant of immunity from prosecution.

Binion's brother, ex-Horseshoe Club owner Jack Binion, has alleged in court that Murphy and Tabish were having a romantic affair at the time of Ted's death. Murphy reported discovering Ted's body at his home next to an empty bottle of the prescription sedative Xanax. Toxicology tests found lethal levels of heroin and Xanax in his system.

One of Murphy's criminal attorneys, Oscar Goodman, joined Palazzo Thursday in suggesting Tabish never was interested in talking to the FBI.

"It doesn't sound right to me," Goodman said. "I just don't see the kid going to the FBI. I don't see how the FBI can do anything to help him."

Goodman, however, said he wanted to learn more about Tabish's meeting with Behnen.

"In my office, you know," he said, "we're not fond of people who talk to the FBI."

Goodman, who has defended dozens of top mobsters over the years, praised the fortitude of his own client.

"I've represented a lot of tough guys in my life, and I don't think I've represented anyone who's more stand up than Sandy Murphy," he said.

Behnen, meanwhile, said Tabish offered her derogatory information about both of her brothers, who at one point before Ted's death had been battling her for control of the Horseshoe Club. Behnen took over the downtown casino in July after buying out her brothers.

She is at odds with Jack Binion over a chip-cashing controversy at the Horseshoe.

"I could tell he had talked to Ted for hours," Behnen said of Tabish. "He knew intimate details about Ted that only someone who had spent long hours with him would know."

Harry Claiborne, one of Binion's estate lawyers, said he was flabbergasted to hear about the December meeting between Behnen and Tabish.

"This is absolutely shocking news to me," Claiborne said. "I can't conceive of him going to Becky when Becky was the first person who began to point the finger at him."

Tom Dillard, a private detective investigating Binion's death for the estate, agreed.

"Desperate people do desperate things," Dillard said.

Even Behnen said she didn't believe everything Tabish told her.

"This guy tells a good story," she said.

Behnen explained that Tabish told her he wasn't worried about being charged in Binion's death because he believed he had a strong alibi. He also described the scene death scene for her, she said.

"Here was a person who could possibly have something to do with the death of my brother," Behnen said. "It was a really strange feeling being in a room with him."

Behnen said Tabish told her that he was going to talk to his lawyers and get back to her about arranging a meeting with the FBI.

He telephoned her once at Christmas to indicate he still was looking for a deal, she said, but after that, she never heard from him.

Palazzo, meanwhile, filed papers in District Court Thursday to block Tabish's ordered testimony next week in the estate case.

Lawyers for the estate want Tabish and Murphy to explain what happened to valuables missing from Binion's 2408 Palomino Lane home, including a $300,000 collection of rare currency.

Palazzo contends the estate is trying to use the hearing to further the criminal case against Tabish and Murphy in Binion's death.

District Judge Michael Cherry this week ruled against a similar argument raised by Murphy's lawyers.