Lawyer: Murphy’s disciplinary detention ‘oppressive’

Monday, Nov. 1, 1999 | 11:28 a.m.

Sandy Murphy's lawyer says Clark County Detention Center officials treated her in an "oppressive" manner last week.

John Momot told the Sun he's appealing a decision by the jail's Conduct Adjustment Board ordering Murphy to spend 15 days in "disciplinary detention."

Murphy was credited with seven days for time served because she was held a week under 24-hour lockdown for violating the terms of her house arrest. The remaining eight days were suspended pending her future behavior in the jail's house arrest program.

The sentence was handed down after a "conduct adjustment hearing" with the 27-year-old accused killer the day before she was released back into house arrest. Murphy is charged in the Sept. 17, 1998, slaying of her boyfriend, well-known gambling figure Ted Binion.

Momot said jail officials gave Murphy little advanced notice of the hearing and denied her lawyer an opportunity to attend.

"It appears to be oppressive," Momot said. "She had a right to present witnesses, and she couldn't do so."

Murphy was sanctioned for hanging up the telephone on Corrections Officer Donna Bryant, who was inquiring why she had left her Henderson apartment for eight hours Oct. 20 without properly notifying house arrest officials.

At an Oct. 22 hearing before District Judge Joseph Bonaventure, who is overseeing the Binion murder case, Murphy contended that she had spent the time with her attorneys.

Momot said the Conduct Adjustment Board based its decision on erroneous facts.

The board, Momot said, concluded that Bryant had telephoned him Oct. 20 looking for Murphy. But at the hearing before Bonaventure, Bryant testified that she didn't call the attorney.

Momot, meanwhile, chided jail officials for keeping Murphy in total lockdown the first several days of her week in jail without an opportunity to take a shower or make a phone call.

Inmates in disciplinary detention generally are allowed one hour a day outside their cells to take care of personal matters.

But Murphy, who was jailed Thursday morning, didn't emerge from her cell until Monday, Momot said. She waited in line to make a phone call and then missed her opportunity to take a shower, he added.

Murphy, he said, also was not given a blanket for sleeping at night.

Momot said Murphy was wearing handcuffs and chains when he visited her in jail Monday and Tuesday.

Detention Center officials acknowledged that Murphy was under a 24-hour lockdown, but they declined to discuss the specifics of her case, which is considered an internal matter.

Conduct adjustment hearings, jail officials said, are administrative proceedings not subject to the rules of evidence in a courtroom.

On Oct. 22, Bonaventure ordered Murphy to spend the week at the detention center to change her "cavalier attitude" toward authority.

After her release Thursday, Momot told reporters the judge's words hit home with his client.

And Murphy vowed to follow the rules of house arrest, as she prepares for her March 13 trial.

Murphy and her reported lover, Rick Tabish, are accused of pumping Binion with drugs, suffocating him and stealing his valuables.

Binion's body was discovered on the floor of his home next to an empty bottle of the prescription sedative Xanax. An autopsy later found Xanax and heroin in his stomach.

The former casino executive had obtained 12 doses of heroin the night before his death.