High-profile cellmates split up after complaint

Monday, July 24, 2000 | 11:22 a.m.

Three women charged in high-profile homicide cases no longer are housed in the same cell at the Clark County Detention Center, jail officials confirmed today.

The inmates -- Sandy Murphy, Jessica Williams and Margaret Rudin -- were moved to separate cells earlier this month following a complaint lodged by Rudin, officials said.

All three women had been housed together on the second-floor protective custody wing of the detention center since March 20.

The 56-year-old Rudin, charged in the December 1994 slaying of her husband, Ron Rudin, complained to jail officials that Murphy, 28, and Williams, 21 were engaging in activities that disturbed her.

Officials would only describe the allegations as "inappropriate conduct" between the two younger cellmates who both once worked briefly as topless dancers.

Murphy was convicted in May with her lover, Rick Tabish, of killing gambling figure Ted Binion, and Williams is awaiting an October trial on charges of plowing her car into a group of teenagers picking up trash on Interstate 15, killing six of them.

Detention center officials conducted an internal investigation into Rudin's allegations, but could not substantiate them.

"All three parties were interviewed, and both Williams and Murphy vehemently denied any kind of inappropriate conduct between the two of them," one jail official said.

Murphy's lawyer, John Momot, added: "There was no romantic relationship between them. Sandy was just comforting her."

John Watkins, who represents Williams, said he knows nothing about Rudin's allegations, but that he believes they aren't true. He said he's been told Rudin "isn't playing with reality."

Watkins added that Williams has told him she wants to get past the tragedy of the deadly March 19 accident and marry her boyfriend and have babies.

"As far as I know Jessica likes guys," Watkins said. "She's never had an affinity for ladies."

Jails officials said they decided to separate the three women even though Rudin's allegations didn't hold up.

"Rather than perpetuate the friction, we decided to relocate them in the same housing area, but in different cells," one official said.

Rudin, jailers said, was moved on July 7, the same day she complained about Murphy and Williams. Murphy was placed in a separate cell the next day.

News of the shakeup involving Murphy and her cellmates comes amid new fallout from the convictions in the Binion murder case.

Attorneys Louis Palazzo and Robert Murdock, who represented Tabish during the murder trial, have split up.

"It was time for us to go our own way," Murdock said today.

Palazzo is expected to take some heat this week when Tabish's new lawyer, William Terry, files a motion for a new trial. The motion is due Wednesday.

Defense sources have told the Sun that Tabish was unhappy with Palazzo's performance during the trial.

Terry has been examining whether Palazzo's conduct could be grounds to assert that Tabish had ineffective counsel and deserved a new trial.

Defense investigator William Cassidy, who is a political operative for Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, a former Murphy attorney, also has been targeted by Terry in his push for a new trial.

Terry is said to have questions about Cassidy's "loyalties and motives."

Some have suggested Cassidy was trying to protect Goodman from embarrassment.

The Sun reported June 13 that Murphy brought bags of silver coins believed to have been stolen from Binion to Goodman after the former casino executive's death. Murphy ended up taking the coins back, however, before Goodman could inventory them.

Prosecutors were not aware of the incident until after the trial.

District Judge Joseph Bonaventure, meanwhile, has scheduled a 9:30 a.m. hearing Tuesday on a request by Terry to force detention center officials to turn over documents relating to jailhouse snitch David Gomez.

Terry is said to be considering reopening allegations discarded earlier this year by Bonaventure that Gomez was planted in the same cell as Tabish to steal confidential papers.

Gomez asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a February hearing on the subject and refused to testify.

Bonaventure later dismissed the defense claims after Palazzo acknowledged he had no "smoking gun" to prove prosecutors had ordered Gomez placed next to Tabish.