DA wants word with former Tabish attorney

Dan Kulin

Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2003 | 11:24 a.m.

The Clark County district attorney's office is asking a judge to waive Rick Tabish's attorney-client privilege with his former attorney, whom Tabish has accused of improperly handling the appeal of his extortion conviction.

Tabish's conviction on charges he extorted Jean sand pit operator Leo Casey was the only ruling left unchanged by the Nevada Supreme Court in July when the high court ordered a new trial for Tabish and Sandy Murphy on charges they killed casino figure Ted Binion.

The district attorney's office argues it is entitled to speak with former Tabish attorney William Terry to properly contest Tabish's accusations, which serve as a basis for an appeal of the extortion conviction.

If granted, the motion would give prosecutors an inside look at past legal strategies for Tabish and access to statements Tabish made to Terry.

A decision on the motion could come during a Feb. 13 hearing on the case that revolves around the September 1998 murder of Binion.

Tabish and Murphy were convicted in May 2000 of giving Binion a lethal drug overdose. But the high court overturned the convictions in part based on the determination that District Judge Joseph Bonaventure erred in allowing Tabish to be tried on extortion charges not related to Binion's death at the same time.

But while a new trial is set for October on the murder and robbery charges, Tabish remains in prison for beating up Casey two months before Binion's death in an effort to force Casey to give up his interest in a gravel pit the two owned.

Meanwhile, Murphy was released last week after $250,000 bail was posted by benefactor William Fuller, a local mining executive.

The district attorney's motion filed Monday in District Court said that in a Dec. 12 court filing Tabish accused District Attorney David Roger of prosecutorial misconduct, suggested that Leo Casey committed perjury and criticized Terry.

Tabish accused Terry of failing to raise certain issues in the appeal of the Casey conviction.

The motion says that because Tabish is basing his argument for another appeal on his claim that Terry made mistakes, the district attorney's office must be allowed to interview Terry to be able to adequately argue against the appeal.

"He places blame for failing to raise various issues contained in his petition squarely on the shoulders of Mr. Terry," the district attorney's motion states. "Both the argument contained in the memorandum, critical of Mr. Terry's performance on appeal, as well as the affidavit of the defendant clearly constitute a waiver of the attorney-client privilege."

The state has the right to test and examine the allegations raised by the defendant in his petition and memorandum in an effort to mount a procedural attack on the pleading, the motion states.

"This inquiry would surely include the strategies employed on appeal, the reasons for the inclusion or omission of certain issues as well as statements made by the defendant relative to these issues."

An attorney in Terry's office said Terry would have no comment, and Deputy District Attorney Christopher Lalli, who has been prosecuting the murder charges against Tabish and Murphy, declined comment.

District Attorney David Roger said prosecutors were successful in a similar motion filed between the original verdict and sentencing of Tabish.

At that time, Tabish attacked the work of his former attorney, Louis Palazzo. But after the judge granted the district attorney's request to have Tabish's attorney-client privilege with Palazzo waived so prosecutors could mount an opposition to the appeal, Tabish dropped the appeal on that basis.

"This is just asking the court to be consistent," Roger said.

Granting the motion would give prosecutors the authority to ask Tabish's former attorney about anything Tabish told him and anything else related to the case, Roger said.