Murphy defense investigator files appeal of citation

Tuesday, June 12, 2001 | 12:01 p.m.

A defense investigator for convicted murderer Sandy Murphy is fighting a state citation for operating without a license.

Ted Gunderson, a former top FBI agent in Los Angeles, plans to tell the Nevada Private Investigators Board that he has been working in Las Vegas as an investigative journalist and does not need a license.

The five-member board cited Gunderson last month and ordered him to stop interviewing prosecution witnesses in the Ted Binion murder case. He faces a $2,500 fine.

Carol Hanna, executive director of the Private Investigators Board, said Monday that Gunderson filed notice he's appealing the citation. His case, she said, could be heard by the board at its Sept. 6 meeting in Reno.

Hanna said she was surprised to hear that Gunderson now is claiming he's an investigative reporter.

"Why didn't he share this with us the minute we questioned what he was doing?" she asked.

Murphy's lawyer, Herb Sachs, has previously acknowledged that Gunderson was working for him and that Sachs suspended his activities amid the board's probe.

When the citation was issued, Sachs accused the board of "picking" on Gunderson.

"He has been doing a fairly decent job for us," Sachs said at the time.

Now Gunderson has obtained a "to whom it may concern" letter from the Spotlight, a Washington-based newspaper that calls itself the nation's largest populist weekly.

"Ted Gunderson is associated with the Spotlight as a reporter and investigator and is a representative of the Spotlight's southwest regional bureau," the letter says.

"Mr. Gunderson has been requested to undertake an investigation into allegations of prosecutorial misconduct in the Clark County District Attorney's Office in connection with the murder conviction of Sandy Murphy."

The 29-year-old Murphy and 36-year-old Montana contractor Rick Tabish were convicted last year of killing Binion, a wealthy former casino executive, at his Las Vegas home on Sept. 17, 1998.

Both defendants are appealing their convictions to the Nevada Supreme Court. They now have until July 13 to file their briefs outlining why they believe their convictions should be overturned.

Several prosecution witness have complained that Gunderson and others associated with Murphy's defense team have been harassing them for interviews. Sachs said Gunderson has acted above board.

Gunderson, meanwhile, will have to show that he's been on the payroll of the Spotlight to satisfy the concerns of the Private Investigators Board, Hanna said.

That, she said, means providing the board with copies of W-2 forms filed with the IRS.

Michael Collins Piper, the Spotlight correspondent who wrote the "to whom it may concern" letter, said from Washington that he wasn't aware Gunderson was on the publication's payroll.

But he added that Gunderson has had a longstanding relationship with the weekly and likely has been paid for his services in the past.

Piper said the Spotlight often writes about government misconduct.

Gunderson, he said, has contributed to the paper's coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing.

In 1995, at a militia conference in Palm Springs, Calif., Gunderson told the Los Angeles Times that he believed the bombing was committed by a "demonic element from within the government."

Army veteran Timothy McVeigh was executed for the bombing on Monday.