Hearing set over panties

Wednesday, Nov. 3, 1999 | 11:22 a.m.

A prosecutor says Sandy Murphy's lawyer is wasting valuable court time searching for her missing black panties.

"The state of Nevada has no interest in Sandy Murphy's panties," Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger said this morning. "It would be an outrageous waste of court time to indulge a hunt for her underwear."

Roger, who is prosecuting Murphy in the September 1998 slaying of Ted Binion, said his response to Tuesday's motion by attorney John Momot will be a "short one."

Momot filed court papers Tuesday, demanding officials return the panties they "illegally seized" from her during the week she spent at the Clark County Detention Center.

At Momot's request, a Nov. 15 hearing on the matter has been set before District Judge Joseph Bonaventure, who is presiding over the murder case.

Murphy, a 27-year-old onetime topless dancer, and her reported lover, Montana contractor Rick Tabish, are charged with pumping Binion with drugs, suffocating him and stealing his valuables.

In his motion, Momot asked Bonaventure to bar prosecutors from using the panties as evidence against his client in her March 13 trial in the slaying of Ted Binion.

Momot said he's concerned authorities might try to conduct scientific tests on the underwear.

But Roger said investigators probing Binion's murder don't have the panties.

"I've executed a lot of search warrants in this case, and if I wanted Sandy Murphy's bodily fluids, I'd get a search warrant for them," Roger said.

Last week Momot complained that jail officials treated Murphy in an "oppressive" manner while she was behind bars for violating the terms of her house arrest. She was released on Thursday.

Momot explained in his motion how Murphy's panties turned up missing.

He said the panties along with the rest of her street clothes were turned into detention center officials Oct. 21, when she was booked and given jail garb. The clothes were placed in a clear plastic bag.

But when Murphy was set free Thursday, Momot said, the panties were not in the bag.

Murphy, he added, reported the missing panties to a house arrest officer, who told her, "I wouldn't worry about it. It's no big deal."

Momot said Murphy was not given a "satisfactory explanation" of the underwear's whereabouts.