Trial may have lifted Roger to DA

Adrienne Packer

Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2002 | 11:27 a.m.

The moment Judge Joseph Bonaventure drove his gavel into its sounding block ending the Ted Binion murder trial, David Roger's stock skyrocketed.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Roger and colleague David Wall became household names when the media, both national and local, descended on the televised murder trial of Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish in the death of the casino figure.

Perhaps unknowingly, Roger, 41, significantly upped his chances to become Clark County's next district attorney -- if not by successfully trying the 1998 Binion case then by establishing name recognition.

It certainly helped Tuesday night. Roger, a Republican, won the DA race, beating his colleague and Democratic opponent Mike Davidson 54 percent to 41 percent. Independent Party candidate Joel Hansen received 5 percent.

The Binion trial might have been the difference in the tight race between Roger and Davidson, a 48-year-old assistant district attorney, to replace outgoing DA Stewart Bell.

"Free publicity is worth a whole lot of money," said Erik Herzig, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Fellow prosecutor Wall also opted to run for public office this year and won his bid for District Court judge.

Roger didn't deny the gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Binion trial on Court TV and Las Vegas One gave him a boost. Roger wouldn't say whether he would have considered a run for district attorney without the television time, but said it made his decision easier.

"People in Clark County saw me in the courtroom every afternoon for six or eight weeks," Roger said. "They formed an opinion on my abilities."

Roger, who claimed Davidson of was more as an administrator overseeing the civil division than a prosecutor, also gained an advantage by sending serial robber Jose Vigoa to prison in another high-profile case.

And Roger pounded that point home to voters.

His strategy was effective. Most voters aren't familiar with the intricacies of the district attorney's job so they don't understand the district attorney is rarely in the courtroom trying cases, Herzig said.

"The layperson's view of the law is what they see on TV, the courtroom drama," Herzig said. "They don't know, or they forget, that most law is done outside the courtroom. A lot of it is administrative."

District Attorney Stewart Bell is viewed by many as a success, but the last case he tried was in the summer of 2000. Bell prosecuted Zane Floyd, the gunman who opened fire in a Sahara Avenue Albertson's grocery store.

While Roger capitalized on his name recognition and courtroom experience, Davidson was strapped with the task of explaining to voters what he believes the district attorney's role is -- largely administrative.

"Most people don't know what our office does," Davidson said. "For me to educate the people and convey that message takes longer to do and takes a whole lot more money to do on TV."

Davidson failed to get his point across to voters even though he currently does many of the tasks taken on by district attorneys, such as assigning cases and deciding when to pursue the death penalty.

Whether that would have been enough to beat Roger's bevy of law enforcement endorsements and courtroom drama is questionable, Herzig said.

"The DA must know how to assign cases, but in the excitement factor, that loses out to convicting criminals to death," he said.

Davidson emphasized he has no hard feelings against his new boss.

"I don't begrudge him for the notoriety. He's not the first attorney to parlay a high-profile case into a political career," Davidson said.

"Attorneys beat the snot out of each other in the courtroom and go grab a beer. This is the same thing but instead of being on the opposite side of a lawsuit, we were on opposite sides of a political battle."

Roger said he hasn't decided whether Davidson will remain assistant district attorney, but he plans to keep him in a position that offers as "equal pay as possible."

Either candidate would have taken a pay cut to take over for Bell; the district attorney earns $101,000 a year.