Missing panties hearing will go on as scheduled

Thursday, Nov. 11, 1999 | 11:16 a.m.

A hearing on Sandy Murphy's missing panties will go on as scheduled next week amid the failure of attorneys in the Ted Binion murder case to resolve their differences.

District Judge Joseph Bonaventure, following a meeting Wednesday with prosecutors and Murphy's lawyer, John Momot, set a 9:30 a.m. hearing on Monday.

But the judge said he only wants to hear from the lawyers, not witnesses.

Las Vegas 1, a local cable news channel, has been planning live coverage of the hearing.

Momot, who has accused Clark County Detention Center officials of "illegally seizing" the panties, said Wednesday a hearing would not be necessary if prosecutors assured him the panties wouldn't be used as evidence against his client.

But Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger, who is prosecuting the 27-year-old Murphy, reportedly was unwilling to make that commitment.

In court papers filed earlier in the week, Roger said authorities do not have Murphy's panties and would never conduct evidentiary tests in this case without a court order.

Murphy, charged with her reported lover, Rick Tabish, in Binion's September 1998 slaying, had spent a week in the detention center last month for violating the terms of her house arrest.

She complained that her panties were missing when she was released.