Columnist Jeff German: Past haunts Mattsen, Murphy

Sunday, Oct. 31, 1999 | 10:14 a.m.

Jeff German is the Sun's senior investigative reporter. His column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Reach him at german@lasvegassun.com or 259-4067.

THE PAST always seems to have a way of catching up with people.

David Mattsen, charged with helping Ted Binion's killers steal his silver fortune in Pahrump, is a prime example.

Last week, after learning about Mattsen's lengthy criminal history, which includes convictions for armed robbery and having sex with a child, U.S. Magistrate Lawrence Leavitt ordered the former Binion ranch hand to post $10,000 bail by 4 p.m. Monday or be jailed on federal firearms charges.

It could have been much worse for Mattsen, who has been free on his own recognizance since his Oct. 6 indictment. Leavitt could have followed the recommendation of Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom O'Connell, who wanted Mattsen put behind bars immediately.

Still, the 54-year-old Mattsen emerged from Leavitt's courtroom an angry man.

"It doesn't pay to change your life in the state of Nevada because they don't let you change," he said after the hearing.

Investigators probing Binion's Sept. 17, 1998 slaying got a chuckle out of those words.

They don't believe Mattsen has changed at all from his younger, rowdier days.

He is, afterall, charged with committing a crime relating to the city's most notorious slaying ever.

And now investigators are using his past wrongdoing and the new federal charges to persuade him to consider a real change in life. Believing he has knowledge about Binion's slaying, they want him to testify against the two people charged with killing the well-known gambling figure, Sandy Murphy and her reported lover, Rick Tabish.

So far, Mattsen has resisted. But investigators are betting that the prospect of avoiding a stiff prison term on the gun charges and collecting part or all of the $100,000 reward being offered by the Binion family will demonstrate to Mattsen that life can be good in Nevada.

Murphy's past, meanwhile, may be catching up with her, as well.

It seems she was living in the fast lane before she came to Las Vegas from Southern California in April 1995 and moved in with the wealthy Binion.

I've obtained a copy of a police report from Cosa Mesa, Calif., that shows the then 22-year-old Murphy was arrested Feb. 11, 1994 for suspicion of fraud. The report has become evidence in the Binion murder case.

Murphy, according to the report, was detained by a Cosa Mesa police officer while she was driving a 1994 Porsche. She apparently was calling herself Tiffany Luna when she was stopped.

In her possession was a $1.3 million check signed by Donald Bartolo, a Huntington Beach, Calif., man who worked as a security officer at a department store.

The police officer, the report says, telephoned Bartolo and asked him if he knew Sandy Murphy or Tiffany Luna.

Bartolo replied that he didn't recognize either name, and he denied ever writing a check for $1.3 million, the report says.

But in a follow-up phone conversation, the officer says, Bartolo recalled writing a $1.3 million check and giving it to a business partner he identified as Rodney.

Bartolo acknowledged that he didn't have enough funds in his checking account to cover the $1.3 million, but said his partner was wiring him funds and planned to cash the check.

The report says Bartolo couldn't explain why Rodney, later identified as Rodney Kimbrew of Newport Beach, Calif., didn't wire the money into his own account. And Bartolo wouldn't explain what kind of business he was conducting with his partner.

Kimbrew, it turned out, owned the Porsche Murphy was driving.

Just what happened to the criminal case isn't known, but Murphy never was convicted of any fraud charges.

That isn't stopping private detective Tom Dillard from looking into the 5-year-old arrest.

Dillard, who's investigating Binion's death for his estate, said he's trying to determine whether the incident has "any bearing" on the murder.

"We have investigators in Southern California pursuing additional information," he says.

Those investigators are hoping Murphy's past will provide insight on her activities of the present.