Prosecutors want judge to view seized disks, tapes

Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2000 | 11:24 a.m.

A prosecutor Tuesday took steps to find out what's on a computer disk and two microcassette tapes seized in February from a Henderson apartment shared by Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish.

Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger asked District Judge Joseph Bonaventure to go behind closed doors and examine the items to determine whether they contain attorney-client information protected from public disclosure.

If the disk and microcassettes don't contain such information, Roger intends to ask Bonaventure to let him examine the items for possible evidence in the Ted Binion murder trial.

Roger also asked Bonaventure Tuesday to force Las Vegas lawyer Chris Tilman to provide testimony about his conversations with the 27-year-old Murphy prior to Binion's Sept. 17, 1998, slaying. Tilman has cited his attorney-client relationship with Murphy in refusing to cooperate with prosecutors.

Murphy, who reportedly sought Tilman's advice about reaching a separation agreement with Binion weeks before his death, and Tabish are charged with killing the 55-year-old gambling figure at his Las Vegas home.

Roger made the requests in written motions Tuesday in the high-profile case.

He also sought permission from Bonaventure to compel David Mattsen and Michael Milot to provide finger and palm print samples in an effort to determine whether the two men were at Binion's home the day he was killed. The two men also are suspects in the theft of silver from the Binion estate.

A Metro Police fingerprint specialist found unidentified palm prints on the floor of a bathroom several feet away from where Binion's body was discovered.

A 9 a.m. Jan. 14 hearing has been set in Bonaventure's courtroom on all three motions.

The computer disk and the micro-cassettes have been under seal since they were confiscated by homicide detectives during the early morning Feb. 19 raid on the Henderson apartment.

Murphy's attorney at the time, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, told detectives the items were considered part of Murphy's relationship with her lawyers and not subject to disclosure.

Though investigators don't know for sure what's on the items, a Murphy friend, Linda Carroll, provided some insight about the disk during her grand jury testimony last spring.

Carroll, according to a transcript of her testimony, said the disk contained information about Murphy's "life story."

"She had said she had made a disk from birth to present about her life or something," Carroll told the grand jury.

Murphy, who met Binion while dancing topless at Cheetah's adult nightclub in March 1995, kept the disk in a nightstand next to her bed, police reported.

In his motion to compel Tilman to provide information, Roger said witnesses have said Murphy met with the lawyer to review Binion's will and discuss her possible separation from Binion.

Tabish may have been at the meeting, Roger said.

The prosecutor wants to know whether Murphy and Tilman discussed Murphy's co-habitation agreement with Binion that prohibited her from receiving a large share of the former casino executive's millions in the event of a separation.

Two months before his slaying, Murphy persuaded Binion to include her in his will. He gave her his $900,000 home, its contents and $300,000 in cash upon his death. Binion, however, told his attorney the day before he died to remove Murphy from the will.

Prior to her arrest in Binion's slaying, a district judge upheld Murphy's inheritance. But his estate appealed the decision to the Nevada Supreme Court, which has yet to issue a ruling.

In May, as she continued to battle the estate over her inheritance, Murphy filed a palimony suit against the estate, seeking $2 million for the "unique and extraordinary services" she provided the gambling figure during the three years she lived with him.

The estate is fighting the suit.