Court order against Murphy dad sought

Thursday, May 3, 2001 | 10:55 a.m.

Jason Frazer, a key witness in the Ted Binion murder trial, planned today to seek a restraining order in Montana to stop the father of one of the gambling figure's convicted killers from meeting with him.

Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger, the lead prosecutor in the Binion case, told the Sun that Frazer scheduled a meeting this morning with Missoula County prosecutors to discuss obtaining the court order against Sandy Murphy's father, Kenneth.

Sandy Murphy and her lover, Montana contractor Rick Tabish, were convicted in May 2000 of killing Binion at his posh Las Vegas home on Sept. 17, 1998.

The elder Murphy, who lives in Southern California, has been calling Frazer in Missoula the past several days, pressuring him to provide information that could help his daughter win a new trial.

On Tuesday, following a Sun story on his efforts to contact Frazer, an angry Murphy called the former Tabish business partner again and informed him that he planned to fly to Missoula on Monday to meet with him to "straighten things out."

Frazer, who testified at the murder trial that Tabish tried to involve him in a plot to pay off alibi witnesses, reported the call to Roger and said he had no interest in seeing Murphy.

"He feels he's being harassed by Mr. Murphy," Roger said. "He's looking for a court order to keep Mr. Murphy away from him."

Murphy declined comment, other than to say he's an "honest businessman" who can't afford to fly all over the country. He referred further comment to his daughter's lawyer, Herb Sachs.

Sachs said it looked as though Frazer was overreacting by going to court.

"If he doesn't want to see him, all he has to do is not see him," Sachs said, adding that it seems "senseless" for Murphy to make the trip to Missoula under the threat of a possible restraining order.

Sachs, who is working on Murphy's appeal, said he finds it strange that the prosecution's witnesses suddenly don't want to talk to Sandy Murphy's defense team.

"I'm starting to wonder what's going on here? What's the big secret?" Sachs asked.

Roger said Frazer reported that Kenneth Murphy was upset with Frazer for telling the prosecutor about messages Murphy had left in Missoula.

"Jason said Ken Murphy was irate and reamed him for contacting me," Roger explained.

Frazer, who runs a trucking company in Missoula, told Roger that Murphy said he was calling as a friend. Frazer said he didn't consider Murphy a friend.

"He told Murphy that he went to court to tell the truth, and he has nothing else to say," Roger said. "He just wants to put this behind him."

Sachs, however, said the defense team began contacting Frazer after he put the word out he was willing to cooperate with the defense.

"The problem is the prosecution can threaten witnesses. We can't," Sachs said. "I've told everybody (on the defense) that if the witnesses don't want to speak to you, that's the end of it."

Roger became concerned about the defense team's efforts on Monday after he received his first call from Frazer.

The Missoula businessman played the messages left on his voice mail from Murphy and Las Vegan John Prendeville, who said he was a "friend" of William Fuller, a wealthy benefactor of Murphy's daughter. The messages, which were recorded from April 24 through April 29, were transcribed by the district attorney's office.

In one message, Prendeville said:

"I was asking could you please give me a call, and I wanted to talk to you for a few minutes. I am a friend of Mr. Fuller, Bill Fuller, and he indicated that you might be interested in talking to us a little bit.

" ... I would also appreciate any help you can give us. We'll do whatever we can to make this work out for the better all around. But obviously things will improve there (for) you back in Montana."

Murphy later left a message: "Pretty much Rick and Sandy will be out on appeal in about a year and a half," he said. "But you know we're putting something together, and you know, we'd like to see if you could help.

"I don't want to put any pressure on you to help or not. It would be up to you ... If you're worried about any repercussions, you know, we've got the backing to take care of you and any problems that come up. Because there's some serious people looking into the way things went down here. So you'd be surprised who's going to take a fall from this."

Murphy then asked Frazer to let him know whether he would be comfortable talking about the case "so I don't keep bothering you."

Last Sunday Prendeville again telephoned Frazer, urging him to talk to Fuller.

"I have something for you that might help you, and I just thought if you get a chance to talk, at least we could talk about it and see what we can do," Prendeville said.