Opinion survey fuels courtroom fireworks

Thursday, April 13, 2000 | 10:45 a.m.

A heated courtroom exchange between lawyers erupted Wednesday outside the presence of the jury in the Ted Binion murder trial over a defense consultant's dissemination of poll results to the media.

The fireworks occurred after District Judge Joseph Bonaventure disclosed that he had asked defense lawyers to tell consultant William Cassidy to stop leaking the results of the polls out of fear the figures might be influencing the 12-member jury sitting in judgment of Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish.

Louis Palazzo, who represents Tabish, told the judge he would make sure that Cassidy, who describes himself as a private investigator, no longer discloses the results.

But then Palazzo ripped into Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger for telling Bonaventure minutes earlier at a sidebar conference in the jury's presence that he planned to investigate Cassidy.

"That's obstruction of justice," Palazzo charged. "He's a defense consultant."

An irate Roger accused Palazzo of twisting his words, and he told the judge he had decided to subpoena Cassidy as a rebuttal witness and merely was looking into his background as he would with any potential witness.

Then Roger ripped into Cassidy, who was not in the courtroom at the time, for leaking "fraudulent numbers" to the media about the progress of the trial.

Cassidy, who plans to fight the subpoena, has been telling reporters the results show Tabish and Murphy are faring much better in the eyes of the public now that the trial is in progress.

"When I heard about this media blitz by Mr. Cassidy, I was offended," Roger told Bonaventure. "He's trying to influence the jury through the eyes of the law and those close to them, and that's wrong and that's unethical."

Roger said he was checking to see whether Cassidy, who is based in California, has a private investigator's license there. He said records show that he does not have one in Nevada.

Palazzo -- who acknowledged that he does not know who's paying Cassidy for his services -- accused Roger of being "very vindictive" and "vengeful" toward the defense consultant.

"I see this as a very retaliatory action," he said.

Those questioned in the poll were solicited by 15-second television ads put together by a company called Trial Consultants of Nevada. The company includes key members of Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman's campaign team, including Cassidy, who is on leave as a City Hall aide to the mayor. Goodman represented Murphy before he ran for public office last spring.

Cassidy has not explained how his public opinion surveys have been put together other than that they were done by a premier pollster who once worked for Mirage Resorts Inc. Chairman Steve Wynn.

In recent months the well-paid defense team has been mounting a public relations campaign to portray its clients in a more positive light.

Attorneys even have gone on CNBC's "Geraldo Live" to rip into the murder case against their clients.

Prosecutors, citing Nevada Supreme Court rules restricting public comments by lawyers during trials, have refused to go on national television.

Jeff German is the Sun's senior investigative reporter. He can be reached at (702) 259-4067 or by e-mail at german@lasvegassun.com