Housekeeper says coin collection was missing

Monday, April 17, 2000 | 11:20 a.m.

Ted Binion's housekeeper testified today that she gave police a long list of items missing from his home, including a valuable antique coin collection, following his September 1998 death.

Mary Montoya-Gascoigne returned to the witness stand this morning as the Binion murder trial entered its third week of testimony in the courtroom of District Judge Joseph Bonaventure.

Sandy Murphy, Binion's 28-year-old girlfriend, and her lover, Montana contractor Rick Tabish, are charged with killing Binion on Sept. 17, 1998, and stealing his valuables.

Montoya-Gascoigne testified that she made the list after taking a tour of Binion's home with homicide detective James Buczek on Oct. 7, 1998.

She said several wooden boxes where Binion had kept coins and currency throughout the house were empty.

The antique coin collection, which Montoya-Gascoigne said she saw in Binion's den the day before his death, is said to be worth about $200,000.

On Friday, the housekeeper testified that Murphy told her on the afternoon of Sept. 16, 1998, that she no longer trusted her and asked her to leave Binion's 2408 Palomino Lane home early that day.

The next morning, the day of Binion's death, Murphy telephoned her about 9 a.m. and asked her not to come to work, she said.

Montoya-Gascoigne said Murphy told her that she and Binion had been up all night and that they were going to sleep all day. Murphy also said Binion wasn't feeling well, she said.

Prior to the start of today's testimony, Murphy's attorney, John Momot, informed Bonaventure that well-known Milwaukee criminal attorney James Shellow has been retained to help cross-examine upcoming key forensic witnesses. Shellow has worked on cases in Las Vegas in the past with one of Murphy's previous attorneys, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman.

The sideshow outside the courtroom, meanwhile, continued late Friday after private detective Tom Dillard filed a police report alleging he has received death threats from defense consultant William Cassidy, a California private investigator and aide to Goodman.

The threats allegedly were delivered to Dillard -- who many credit with breaking open the murder case -- by Michael Wysocki, a veteran Las Vegas private investigator working for the defense.

Wysocki reportedly was asked by Cassidy to convey the message late Thursday. Tabish's attorney, Louis Palazzo, was within earshot when Cassidy was talking.

Dillard, who works for Binion's $55 million estate, and his lawyer, Brent Bryson, planned to seek a protective order keeping Cassidy away from the Binion private investigator.

Momot said today that the alleged threats have been blown out of proportion.

But Wysocki, who has worked on cases with Dillard in the past, reportedly is not happy about being placed in the middle of the purported threats. He declined comment today.

Montoya-Gascoigne, meanwhile, said Murphy and Tabish both were at Binion's home when she left work early on Sept. 16, 1998.

She described Binion's mood as good.

Less than two weeks before Binion's death, she said, she went around the house with Binion helping him remove the bullets from his many weapons. Binion, she said, did not want Murphy to have access to a loaded gun.

Following Montoya-Gascoigne's testimony today, Chief Deputy District Attorneys David Roger and David Wall planned to start calling their medical experts.

First up was expected to be Dr. Lary Simms, the chief medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Binion's body on Sept. 18, 1998. Simms concluded that Binion was the victim of a homicide and that he died as a result of receiving lethal doses of heroin and Xanax.

His findings were contradicted by Dr. Michael Baden, a famed New York pathologist who concluded Binion was suffocated.

Baden was on today's list of witnesses but wasn't likely to make it to the witness stand until Tuesday.

He is scheduled to follow Dr. Fredric Reiders, a well-known Pennsylvania toxicologist who worked with Baden on the O.J. Simpson defense team.

Reiders has provided prosecutors with a report showing that it was "overwhelmingly unlikely" that Binion died of a heroin overdose.

But he said in the report that Binion had enough heroin and the prescription sedative Xanax in his system to make it difficult for him to resist any acts of "forcible constraint, persuasion and interrogation."

Prosecutors contend Binion's accused killers pumped him with drugs and then smothered him to death.

Defense attorneys maintain Binion died of a self-induced drug overdose. They have retained their own experts, including well-known Pennsylvania pathologist Cyril Wecht, to back up their case.

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.