Columnist Jeff German: Cassidy becoming liability to mayor

Saturday, Aug. 26, 2000 | 3:14 a.m.

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

WILLIAM CASSIDY'S month-long suspension expires this Friday, but there has been speculation we may have seen the last of the California private detective at City Hall.

Many believe Cassidy, a 50-year-old political operative for Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, has worn out his stay.

Last spring Goodman was so impressed with Cassidy's role in getting him elected mayor that he decided he needed the eccentric sleuth within earshot at City Hall to help ease his transition from mob lawyer to civic leader. Goodman gave Cassidy a $52,000 salary to be his trusted adviser.

Cassidy proved invaluable to Goodman in those early weeks in office as the novice mayor wrested control of City Hall from Councilman Michael McDonald, whose political career appears to be self-destructing.

It was an upbeat beginning to a stormy tenure in public service for Goodman's secretive political guru.

On Aug. 3 Goodman announced that his good friend had been suspended without pay for using his City Hall cellular phone while on leave to work as a defense consultant in the Ted Binion murder case. Cassidy had piled up the highest phone bill ($1,686) of all city employees in the first six months of the year.

The cell phone gaffe was the latest in a series of indiscretions involving the Binion case that had been tarnishing Cassidy's reputation, along with the mayor's.

Over a period of several months, Cassidy also had been accused of threatening the life of Binion estate investigator Tom Dillard, making public "fraudulent" poll results during the murder trial, and even talking about breaking into the homes of the lead prosecutor and others in the high-profile case.

Cassidy denied all of the allegations, but his role in the Binion case nevertheless led to separate investigations by Metro Police, the Nevada Private Investigators Licensing Board and even the defense team.

William Terry, the lawyer for Rick Tabish, one of Binion's convicted killers, recently filed court papers alleging Cassidy, who is not a licensed private investigator in Nevada, was paid big bucks to call the shots within the defense at Tabish's expense.

The seasoned attorney's theory, aimed at winning Tabish a new trial, was that Cassidy was present to protect the interests of Goodman, who once represented Tabish's convicted co-defendant, Sandy Murphy. Just days after Binion's death, Murphy had taken bags of silver coins that prosecutors believe were stolen from Binion to Goodman's law firm. Murphy later took back the coins. Amazingly, the incident never surfaced at the trial.

Terry was forced to abandon the push against Cassidy earlier this month after District Judge Joseph Bonaventure ruled he would have a full waiver of the attorney-client privilege and could disclose the defense's innermost secrets upon cross-examination.

But the story remains alive.

Tabish, who is said to hate Cassidy with a passion, still is believed to be looking for ways to revive the allegations in court.

Others in the private sector who have soured on Cassidy also have been delving into his background. And they're starting to compare notes. Discrepancies reportedly have been found in his resume.

There are rumblings that even Murphy's benefactor, mining executive William Fuller, may be taking a hard look at the services Cassidy provided for the Binion defense team.

Fuller, you'll recall, paid the shadowy investigator $217,000 for a mere three months of work.

With it becoming popular to bash Cassidy, many are suggesting he could do Goodman his biggest political favor ever by not coming back to City Hall.

The mayor's teflon coating won't last forever. It's the harsh reality of politics.

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