Possible Tabish death threat probed

Thursday, Jan. 6, 2000 | 11:10 a.m.

Jail officials are investigating a possible death threat against Rick Tabish, one of two people charged with killing Ted Binion.

Tabish, held at the Clark County Detention Center without bond since his June 24 arrest, has been placed in protective custody during the probe, officials said.

Deputy Chief Bill Young, who heads Metro's Detention Services Division, said corrections officers picked up information late last week from inmates that there was a contract out on Tabish's life.

"It appears to be well known among the inmates," Young told the Sun late Wednesday. "We've heard this in three or four areas of the jail."

He said internal investigators planned to interview a number of the 1,800 inmates at the detention center.

But Tabish's lawyer, Louis Palazzo, questioned whether the threat was legitimate.

"I don't believe that there's any death threat," Palazzo said. "I think this is being concocted and manufactured in an effort to impede and hamper his ability to participate in his defense."

Palazzo said his client has no problem being housed in the general inmate population and that he was contemplating asking District Judge Joseph Bonaventure to intervene in the matter.

At a hearing before Bonaventure on Wednesday, Palazzo said he was informed that Tabish, whom he described as a "model" inmate, was placed in protective custody because of the high-profile nature of the murder case.

Palazzo complained to Bonaventure that as of Monday, his client was in "the hole" with little or no privileges, making life difficult on lawyers trying to defend him on the murder charges.

Bonaventure, who expressed concern about Tabish's changing status at the detention center, was to meet with jail officials this morning to learn first-hand about the investigation.

Young said he "took issue" with Palazzo's claim that Tabish was in the "hole."

He said the jail doesn't have a "hole" and that Tabish merely is in a single cell with most of the privileges he had when he was in the general population.

"Our whole goal is not only to protect him, but to provide for his legal defense," Young said. "We're going to follow this to its logical conclusion."

Young said he had no specifics about the nature of the threat, but that early indications are that it was not the result of any forces outside the jail.

Tabish is reported to have ties to Chicago underworld figures.

In another development, Tabish's co-defendant, Sandy Murphy, who is under house arrest, has landed in hot water again with jail officials.

Her attorney, John Momot, has agreed to a 9 p.m. curfew for Murphy in future jail-approved excursions outside her Henderson apartment.

The curfew is the result of a marathon visit Murphy made on Sunday to Palazzo's office that lasted until 1 a.m.

The defense meeting, which began about 12:30 p.m., was brought to Bonaventure's attention on Wednesday.

House arrest officials weren't happy that Murphy had stayed out so late.

Neither was Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger, the lead prosecutor in the case, who raised his concerns at Wednesday's hearing.

Bonaventure, who in October scolded Murphy for her "cavalier attitude" toward jail officials, made it clear that he wouldn't tolerate any further miscues on her part.

Palazzo, meanwhile, ripped into Roger at the hearing for implying that he might have been having an early morning rendezvous with the 27-year-old onetime topless dancer.

Palazzo said he found Roger's characterization of the meeting "offensive."