Murphy filed palimony suit

Tuesday, July 20, 1999 | 11:18 a.m.

Sandy Murphy filed a palimony lawsuit in District Court against Ted Binion's estate five weeks before she was charged in his murder.

In a copy of the five-page suit, obtained by the Sun, Murphy and her lawyer, R. Gardner Jolley, estimated that Murphy was entitled to $2 million for services she provided Binion while living with him until his Sept. 17 death.

Murphy, who had taken up residence with Binion in April 1995, also contended she was entitled to her boyfriend's $900,000 house, its contents and $300,000 in cash.

"Plaintiff would maintain the residence, assist Binion in entertaining friends and acquaintances, cook for Binion and otherwise care for Binion and provide him support, the suit said. "In return, Binion agreed to provide for plaintiff's support and needs for life, including purchasing clothing and other personal belongings."

The suit said Murphy also "assisted him in his personal, family, social, civic and business activities until his death" and that Binion had promised to marry her "once matters were settled or resolved relating to his gaming license."

Several months before his death, state gaming regulators had revoked Binion's license as an executive at the Horseshoe Club because of ties to underworld figures.

The palimony suit was filed May 14 and assigned to District Judge Gary Redmon. But lawyers for Binion's $30 million estate weren't formally notified until last Friday.

Jolley declined comment today on why he waited so long to inform the estate. He said the suit was filed because the estate in March had rejected Murphy's "creditor's claim" over the house.

On June 24, following a well-publicized, nine-month homicide investigation, Murphy and her reported lover, Montana contractor Rick Tabish, were arrested and charged with murdering Binion and stealing his assets in Las Vegas and Pahrump.

After spending three weeks behind bars, Murphy was released last Thursday under house arrest and $300,000 bail posted by an elderly mining company executive who has only known her since April. The executive, William Fuller, said he put up money from the sale of a hotel in Ireland.

Tabish remains at the Clark County Detention Center on no bail.

In the suit, Murphy contended she "sacrificed her own personal and financial interests in carrying out the agreed services for Binion over a period of several years.

"Those services claimed were unique and extraordinary," the suit said.

Attorney James J. Brown, who is overseeing Binion's estate, declined comment today.

But earlier this year, Brown told private detective Tom Dillard that Murphy had signed a cohabitation agreement with Binion precluding such a suit.

Brown referred to the agreement, which was signed in January 1997, in an 84-page transcript of the interview with Dillard, who has been investigating Binion's death for his estate.

"Ted made it clear that he was not going to marry her," Brown told Dillard.

He said the cohabitation agreement allowed Murphy to keep a $125,000 Mercedes Binion had bought her, as well as profits from a stock transaction involving the Rio hotel-casino.

Murphy already has received her share of money (as much as $50,000) from the Rio deal, Brown said.

Richard Wright, another Binion estate lawyer, said today he was surprised at Murphy's suit.

"She just is incapable of suppressing her true motives," Wright said. "This lawsuit speaks eloquently to her character."

Murphy currently is embroiled in a bitter battle with the estate over Binion's sprawling 2408 Palomino Lane home.

Last December, then-District Judge Myron Leavitt awarded Murphy the home, its contents and the $300,000. But the estate appealed that decision at the Nevada Supreme Court.

The estate acknowledges that Binion once willed the house to Murphy, but it also contends that the day before the longtime gambling figure was murdered, he had telephoned Brown with instructions to remove Murphy from his will. Binion's 19-year-old daughter, Bonnie, is the chief heir to his fortune.

District Judge Michael Cherry, who has been overseeing the inheritance battle, so far has refused to allow Murphy back into the Palomino Lane home because she has not helped the estate locate missing assets.

Both Murphy and Tabish asserted their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination earlier this year when asked under oath in District Court about valuables missing from Binion's safe.

Murphy and Tabish later were charged by police with stealing those valuables, which include a $300,000 collection of rare coins and currency.

The duo, said to have been romantically involved prior to Binion's murder, also was charged with trying to steal $4 million in silver from Binion in Pahrump two days after his death.

Murphy reported finding Binion's body at his home Sept. 17 next to an empty bottle of the prescription sedative Xanax.

Toxicology tests later found lethal levels of Xanax and heroin in his body, and an autopsy report obtained by the Sun last week concluded Binion had been given a fatal cocktail of the two drugs.

Both Murphy and Tabish publicly have denied killing Binion.