Prosecution may rest by end of next week

Friday, April 21, 2000 | 11:24 a.m.

Prosecutors have completed their third week of testimony in the Ted Binion murder trial ahead of schedule and now expect to rest their case by the end of next week.

At the close of shortened proceedings Thursday, Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger told District Judge Joseph Bonaventure he expected to present his last witness by the end of next Thursday.

Prosecutors originally had predicted their case might take six to eight weeks, but with Bonaventure's fast pace in the courtroom, it's now likely to be completed in just a month.

The defense, however, has put the word out it might need a month to call its witnesses, which means the most well-publicized trial ever in Las Vegas is far from over.

Bonaventure tentatively set next Friday as the day to lead the 12-member jury on a field trip to view Binion's $6 million silver fortune confiscated by authorities after it was allegedly dug up by murder defendant Rick Tabish and two other men in Pahrump.

The judge gave the jury the day off today, but he suggested he might press them into 10-hour working days in the future. Bonaventure also is said to be considering sequestering the jury in the wake of several publicized incidents outside the courtroom.

One of those incidents involved an alleged death threat made by defense consultant William Cassidy against private detective Tom Dillard, who has investigated Binion's death for his $55 million estate.

Dillard last week filed a crime report against Cassidy with Metro Police, as well as a court motion seeking a protective order to keep the California private investigator away from him.

Detectives now are said to be probing the alleged threat, which reportedly was conveyed to Dillard by another defense investigator, Michael Wysocki.

Cassidy, who has denied making the threat, took a leave of absence as a trusted aide to Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman to work for Tabish's co-defendant, Sandy Murphy.

Tabish and Murphy, Binion's live-in girlfriend, are charged with killing the wealthy gambling figure on Sept. 17, 1998, and stealing his valuables, including his buried silver fortune in Pahrump less than 36 hours after his death.

In court Thursday, prosecutors turned their attention to the silver theft, calling two truck drivers who helped Tabish, Murphy and Binion remove the fortune from the Horseshoe Club under the watchful eyes of security officers in July 1998.

Tabish and Binion later transported the 48,000 pounds of silver bars and coins in a tractor trailer to Pahrump, where it was buried in an underground vault on property Binion owned.

Willie Alder, one of the truck drivers, testified that Michael Milot, a Tabish supervisor, instructed him on the afternoon of Sept. 18, 1998, to pick up an excavator that was going to be used to retrieve the silver.

Milot called him numerous times asking him to speed up his efforts, he said.

Early the next morning, Milot, Tabish and David Mattsen, then Binion's Pahrump ranch manager, were arrested by Nye County sheriff's deputies after they had dug up the silver. Milot and Mattsen are set to stand trial in the theft after the murder case.

Jared Pace, another former Tabish employee, testified Thursday that he saw Tabish and Milot loading tubes of silver coins on the afternoon of Sept. 18, 1998, into a tool box in the back of a pickup truck at a North Las Vegas cement company.

Pace, who acknowledged under cross-examination that he has been at odds with Milot, said the tubes looked similar to those he helped remove from the Horseshoe Club.

He said Tabish "looked a little upset" when he saw the Montana contractor holding some of the tubes.

Next week prosecutors plan to call Tabish's brother-in-law, Dennis Rehbein, to the witness stand to testify that Tabish gave him 100 pounds of silver coins in November 1998 as collateral for a $25,000 loan.

Rehbein, who has received immunity for his testimony, turned over the coins to police just before the murder trial started.

In action outside the presence of the jury Thursday, Bonaventure refused to give defense attorneys dated Freedom of Information Act records on Binion.

The records, which are said to go back to the 1980s reportedly refer to allegations of illicit activities on the part of Binion and other casino industry executives.

Attorneys for Binion's estate had asked Bonaventure to quash a subpoena seeking the records.

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.