Judge OKs Murphy to post bail

Monday, July 12, 1999 | 2 a.m.

Justice of the Peace Jennifer Togliatti today agreed to allow Sandy Murphy to post $300,000 in bail she obtained from a "good Samaritan."

Murphy's lawyer, Bill Terry, said he expected his client to be released Tuesday from the Clark County Detention Center, where she is being held on murder charges in the death of her boyfriend, Ted Binion.

Togliatti approved of bail after receiving papers from Ireland showing Murphy's benefactor, William Fuller, was putting up proceeds from the 1997 sale of the Castle Hotel in Dublin, Ireland.

On Friday, Fuller, a Southern Nevada mining company president who said he holds dual citizenship in the United States and Ireland, promised Togliatti he would produce paperwork that showed the cash he's posting came from the sale of the property.

The other obstacle to Murphy's release also was removed today after homicide detectives found Murphy's missing passport, which turned out to have been confiscated by police.

Togliatti was reluctant to release the 27-year-old Murphy on Friday knowing she might have access to the passport. As a result, Murphy was forced to remain in in jail over the weekend.

Togliatti, who had instructed news photographers not to take Fuller's picture in court, said Friday she found it unusual that Fuller, whom she described as a "good Samaritan," was stepping forward to help Murphy.

And Deputy District Attorney David Wall called Fuller's surfacing a "curious" development in the case.

But Togliatti said she was inclined to approve the bail today if the international transaction checked out.

Fuller testified in court that he met Murphy in April at the Aristocrat restaurant in Las Vegas and was helping her because "she's a nice person" and he "believes in her innocence."

He said he was introduced to Murphy at the Aristocrat, where she has been a regular the past several years. Murphy and Binion often frequented the upscale establishment together.

Fuller, speaking in a low voice with a strong Irish accent, said he has had dinner with Murphy 4-5 times since April.

He acknowledged on the witness stand that he has given Murphy "pocket money" and loaned her $125,000 to pay her former lawyer, just-elected Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman.

State records show Fuller is president, secretary and treasurer of Eldorado Mining Inc., which was incorporated in 1970. The company, Fuller said, does mining in Southern Nevada, including Searchlight.

Fuller, records show, resides at a six-bedroom, 3,806-square-foot home in Las Vegas owned by the Dublin entertainment law firm of Gleeson McGrath Baldwin.

In court Friday, Fuller told Togliatti that Francis J. Murphy, a senior partner in the firm, wired the $300,000 from a bank in Dublin to the Bank of America in Las Vegas so that he could provide a cashier's check for Sandy Murphy's bail. Fuller said he did not believe the two Murphy's were related.

Togliatti returned the $300,000 check to Terry, until questions about the bank transaction could be cleared up today.

Terry and homicide detectives also were instructed by Togliatti to look for Murphy's passport, which first was discovered by security officers in Murphy's purse in the backyard of Binion's home after his slaying.

Murphy was ordered to surrender the passport as one of the conditions of her release.

Once she posts bail, she also must remain under house arrest and electronic monitoring and not have contact with any other defendants or witnesses in the murder case.

Murphy and her reported lover, Montana contractor Rick Tabish, have been jailed since their arrests two weeks ago in Binion's Sept. 17 slaying.

Togliatti last week ordered the 34-year-old Tabish to remain behind bars without bail, calling him a flight risk and threat to the community.

She also scheduled an Aug. 16 preliminary hearing for Murphy and Tabish and the four defendants charged with lesser crimes related to Binion's murder.

Following that hearing, which is expected to last up to 10 days, Togliatti will decide whether there's enough evidence to order the six defendants to stand trial on the charges contained in an 11-count indictment filed June 24.

The four facing lesser charges -- David Lee Mattsen, Michael David Milot, Steven Lee Wadkins and John Bradford Joseph -- all are asking Togliatti for separate preliminary hearings and trials. Togliatti said she will hear those requests at 10 a.m. on July 23.

Mattsen and Milot are facing charges with Tabish and Murphy stemming from the attempted theft of $4 million in silver from Binion in Pahrump two days after his murder. Wadkins and Joseph are charged with Tabish in a plot to kidnap and torture a onetime business partner.

On Friday, James "Bucky" Buchanan, an attorney for Mattsen, filed a motion in Justice Court to dismiss burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary charges against his client.

Buchanan contended in his eight-page motion that Nevada's burglary statutes don't apply to the underground vault Binion used to store the silver.

Previously, Buchanan has alleged that prosecutors have been trying to pressure Mattsen, a former Binion ranch, into cooperating in the murder investigation.