Tabish says he befriended, counseled Binion

Wednesday, July 14, 1999 | 11:33 a.m.

Two days after Ted Binion's Sept. 17 death Rick Tabish, one of his accused killers, portrayed himself as a friend looking to do business with the multimillionaire and help him cope with his personal problems.

Tabish offered his insights about Binion in a 28-minute interview with Nye County sheriff's deputies following his early morning Sept. 19 arrest in the attempted theft of $4 million in silver Binion had buried in an underground vault in Pahrump.

"Teddy and I have always been trying to get something going, and I've tried to get him interested in doing something ... and I mean ... the guy's wasting his life," Tabish told sheriff's deputies. "I was watching him go from 191 pounds down to 147 pounds. I think he's a great guy. I think ... I thought the world of him."

Tabish went on to say he was trying to help Binion "kick the booze" and stay off of heroin.

The Sun has obtained an 18-page transcript of the sometimes rambling interview, turned over to defense lawyers last week. It is the only time the 34-year-old Montana contractor has spoken on the record to authorities during the well-publicized investigation into Binion's murder.

Prosecutors, however, may have trouble introducing his statements in court because he asked for an attorney early in the interview, but was not provided one. Still, his remarks shed light on his defense.

Nye County Sheriff Wade Lieseke, whom Tabish said was informed about his plans to dig up the silver, was present during the interview, which was conducted by Sgt. Steve Huggins, a longtime Binion friend who has since left the sheriff's department. Lieseke has acknowledged receiving telephone calls from Tabish Sept. 19, but he has said he never gave Tabish permission to take the silver.

Since the interview, Tabish and his reported 27-year-old lover, Binion girlfriend Sandy Murphy, have been charged with killing the colorful gaming executive and stealing his assets in Pahrump and Las Vegas. Tabish, who had built the vault in Pahrump, remains behind bars on no bail, and Murphy, who has posted a $300,000 bail, has been making arrangements for house arrest so that she can be released from jail.

In the interview with deputies, Tabish said he met Binion 6-8 months earlier in a bathroom at Piero's restaurant in Las Vegas.

"We just hit it off," he said. "... He consulted me about his problems, how he'd like to quit doing the drugs. He says 'I don't show my pain, but I've got a lot of pain, you know, colon pain, internal pain, and he goes that's why I smoke all the pot.' He goes 'I got to figure out how to quit drinking,' and he went to the heroin phase and that's kinda when I backed off a little.

"You know, I got a company policy. I'm no drug user. I mean I'll ... a drug test right now ... I mean so I felt like maybe I could take a part in helping this gentleman out."

Binion, he said, Binion planned to invest with him in a concrete company.

Tabish bragged about buying a sand pit in Jean and having $4.5 million in new equipment and how Binion told him he was "gonna put up the credit line for a million bucks to do this new sand program we have in Vegas."

Las Vegas authorities have charged Tabish with torturing onetime business partner Leo Casey into turning over his interests in the Jean sand put.

In an attempt to explain his role in digging up the silver, Tabish pointed out that he was merely acting on Binion's behalf.

He said Binion told him a couple of weeks before he died that he wanted him to take care of the silver if anything should happen to Binion so that it wouldn't get in the hands of his ex-wife, Doris.

Tabish described Binion as being "paranoid" about the silver, frequently bringing it up in conversations.

Then he told Lieske: "I mean I'd have to be a complete fool to come out load a steel trailer full of silver and think I'm going to steal it in broad daylight. I mean came out here last night. I called you three different occasions telling you I was coming. I said I would call you when I came to town. I wanted to meet you to make sure everything was on the QT."

Lieske responded: "The only thing that I understood you to say was that you were going over here. I knew nothing."

Later, Tabish again insisted he "didn't come here to rip this man off.

"I mean I've got a year-and-a-half-old-kid, a 3-year-old kid. I got a hell of a business that's going public right now .. It wasn't the agenda. And I know that's hard for you guys to believe ...."

He acknowledged lying to deputies at the scene when they asked him what he was doing because Binion wanted him to be secretive about the silver.

"He (said) 'just call the sheriff, and he'll take care of everything,' " Tabish told the deputies.

Huggins, however, said several months after that interview that Tabish had given several different stories to deputies about why he had dug up the silver.

And Richard Wright, one of the lawyers for Binion's $30 million estate, has publicly said Tabish did not have permission from the estate, which control's Binion's assets, to remove the silver.

In a taped March 9 interview with private detective Tom Dillard, who has been investigating Binion's murder for his estate, Huggins said Binion had told him prior to his death that he feared the guy who built the vault in Pahrump might try to steal the silver.

Huggins said he later learned that guy was Tabish.

According to a 60-page transcript of that interview, Huggins said Tabish told him and another Nye County sergeant that Binion had "authorized him to pay a certain sum of money" to Lieseke to help ease the way of the silver excavation.

Huggins said Tabish indicated Lieske was to receive up to $100,000.

Lieske, who could not be reached for comment, has denied having any knowledge that he was to receive money.

But Huggins, who was not a political supporter of Lieseke's at the department, told Dillard he was concerned about the allegations coming from Tabish that Lieske could have been involved with the contractor.

In an 109-page affidavit filed by Metro homicide detectives last month, Lieske was quoted as asking Binion estate lawyers on Sept. 19 after the Tabish interview whether Binion had included him in his will.

Tabish, meanwhile, described Binion as being "not quite all there" the last couple of weeks of his life.

Though homicide detectives believe he was at Binion's home the day of his murder, Tabish told Nye County deputies he was there the previous day and that Binion was in a good mood.

"He was all happy," he said. "His whole motivation, his new motivation was that the Behnens ... he was going to take over the first mortgage at the Horseshoe."

Binion's sister, Becky Behnen, had purchased the Horseshoe in July after state gaming regulators revoked Binion's license and forced him to sell his interests in the downtown casino.

Prior to the sale, Behnen was embroiled in a bitter battle for control of the resort with Binion and her other brother, former longtime Horseshoe President Jack Binion.

Tabish later approached Behnen and offered her information about both of her brothers during a conversation secretly monitored by the FBI. Behnen had telephoned the FBI after she was contacted by Tabish.