Total cost of case reaches $227,000

Friday, May 19, 2000 | 11:20 a.m.

Jurors in the Ted Binion murder trial began their eighth day of deliberations today, as taxpayer costs in the well-publicized case soared to an estimated $227,000.

"I would classify this as an average cost for any murder case that goes over 30 days," Doug Bradford, Clark County's director of public communications, said this morning.

Bradford said the costs to the public would have been much higher had District Judge Joseph Bonaventure decided to sequester the 12 jurors during the trial, which began March 27.

"I think he saved the taxpayers a lot of money by not sequestering the jurors anytime during the trial," Bradford said.

The jurors, nine women and three men, deliberated the fate of Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish for 11 hours Thursday before breaking for the evening at 8 p.m. They resumed their deliberations at 9 a.m. today.

Murphy, Binion's 28-year-old girlfriend, and her lover, 35-year-old Montana contractor Rick Tabish, are standing trial on charges of killing the wealthy gambling figure Sept. 17, 1998, and stealing his valuables.

Prosecutors have alleged Murphy and Tabish pumped Binion with drugs and suffocated him. But defense attorneys have contended the former casino executive, a known heroin user, committed suicide with a drug overdose.

Bonaventure was to decide this morning whether to give the jurors the option of deliberating on Saturday if necessary.

The jurors today were approaching the record for the longest local deliberations set in 1981 by the panel that convicted Philip Bruce Cline of setting the fire at the Las Vegas Hilton that killed eight people.

Cline had made a confession to police in that case.

Bradford said the daily Binion trial costs have declined from $7,400 to $1,210 since the jurors began deciding the fate of Murphy and Tabish on May 10.

The salaries of most court employees no longer are factored into the costs because the employees have returned to their regular duties, he said.

In another development, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, a criminal defense attorney who once represented Murphy, weighed in on the case Thursday at his weekly news conference with reporters.

"If I were the lawyers, I would be screaming every time it is referred to as the Binion murder trial," Goodman said.

But then he added: "They've done a good job, so I'm not going to step on their toes."

Goodman acknowledged that many Las Vegas residents have told him they don't want him involved in the case.

Early in the trial there was word that Murphy's latest benefactor, 84-year-old William Fuller, wanted to pay Goodman $1 million to return to the defense team. But Goodman reportedly turned down the offer.

Goodman also was mentioned as a possible defense witness at the end of the trial, but he was not called to the stand.

However, William Cassidy, one of mayor's top political operatives, has been an integral part of the defense team.

Cassidy, who has stirred up controversy outside the courtroom, took a leave of absence from his City Hall job to help the defense.

He irked Bonaventure and prosecutors early in the case when he made public polling results on the progress of the trial.

Cassidy, a California private investigator who claims to have had ties to the intelligence community, also was accused of threatening the life of Binion estate investigator Tom Dillard.

Sun staff writer Diana Sahagun contributed to this report.

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.