Former Nye sheriff contradicts Tabish statements

By Matt Pordum (contact)

Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2004 | 9:21 a.m.

A former Nye County sheriff contradicted the testimony of Rick Tabish, who is accused of killing gaming figure Ted Binion, as prosecutors Tuesday tried to undercut Tabish's testimony.

Former Sheriff Wade Lieseke acknowledged that Tabish called him three times the day after Binion's death, but Lieseke said Tabish never told him, as Tabish said he did, that he was going to Pahrump to dig up Binion's silver. Tabish has said he was going to preserve the silver for Binion's daughter Bonnie.

Lieseke said Tabish never told him he was fulfilling Binion's wishes by unearthing Binion's $7 million worth of silver from his underground vault in Pahrump.

"He said he was a business partner of Binion and had property they owned jointly and he wanted to come to Pahrump and pick up his property," Lieseke said.

Lieseke, who was campaigning for his re-election at the annual Harvest Festival in Pahrump the day of Tabish's calls, said he didn't understand why Tabish was contacting him in the first place.

"I told him (Tabish) 'I don't understand why you are calling me because this is Nye County' and I didn't have any authority because Binion had died in Clark County,' " Lieseke said. " I told him he should be contacting the public administrator's office or Binion's estate."

Tabish testified on Monday he was retrieving the silver from Binion's vault because Binion had told him to do so if he ever died. Tabish said Binion's daughter was to have received the proceeds from the plan.

Tabish said he didn't tell Nye County sheriff's deputies why he was taking the silver because he didn't trust them and had already received Lieseke's approval.

Lieseke said Tabish was essentially "asking for permission to take the property and telling me he was coming over here." He said he told Tabish he couldn't give him the authority and "if security tells you to leave, you have to leave."

Lieseke said he had seen armed guards patrolling Binion's land before he went to the Harvest Festival.

Additionally, Lieseke said Tabish told him "Ted did not want Jack (Ted Binion's older brother) to get a hold of this property."

Lieseke said Tabish said "Ted liked me (Lieseke) quite a bit" and had left $250,000 in his will for Lieseke. He said he didn't believe Tabish because while "he was friends with Ted he was certainly not that good of friends with him."

Nye County s deputies wound up arresting Tabish, his employee Mike Milot and David Mattsen, manager of Binion's Pahrump ranch, for burglary.

He said before Tabish began calling him he had received a call from Mattsen asking him if a business partner of Binion could call him about "something to do with carrying out the last wishes of someone who had passed away."

Lieseke was adamant in saying Tabish never mentioned silver or that he was preserving silver for Bonnie Binion in any of the three calls he received from Tabish that day.

Lieseke said "two to three weeks" prior to those calls Binion had told him he had "buried some property underground on his Wilson Street property" and wanted me to "keep an eye on" it, but never mentioned silver being in a vault.

Rick Wright, a longtime attorney and friend of Binion who testified twice previously, returned to the witness stand Tuesday and said Binion told him Jack Binion, attorney Jim Brown and Wright "were the people he (Binion) trusted to preserve" valuables for Bonnie Binion.

Wright said Binion told him on several occasions Tabish was going to build him a vault in Pahrump for his silver, but "he really couldn't trust anyone who built the vault because they would know the combination." He said Binion felt his silver was safe, however, because since the vault was in the middle of Pahrump someone trying to steal it "would not go unnoticed."

In calling Ramon Owen to testify, prosecutors may have unveiled the mystery surrounding a man previously known only as "Ishma."

Jason Frazer, a former business associate of Tabish, had testified Tabish wrote him a series of notes in the summer of 1999 instructing Frazer to contact a man named Ishma in an attempt to discredit the Binion estate's investigator Tom Dillard.

Owen, who was Tabish's cellmate at the Clark County Detention Center from July 6, 1999, to Aug. 10, 1999, testified Tabish "wanted me to get my friends to discredit Dillard." He said he created the name for himself because "he didn't want anyone to know who he was."

After being released from the detention center Owen said he communicated with Tabish via three-way calls Tabish made from the jail through his bail bondsman.

He said under Tabish's orders Frazer gave Owen's girlfriend $1,200 as an initial payment for the plan to pay people to discredit Dillard, but he never followed through with the plan because Tabish told him something had "happened with Jason (Frazer) and his wife."

Owen said he was to receive $6,000 and cocaine for the three people he was going to have discredit Dillard.

Tabish had testified that the name Ishma was of "no significance" to him. He said although Frazer's notes indicating payments to investigator Jim Thomas and an attorney were correct, the notes indicating payments to a person named Ishma were not. Tabish testified Ishma might have been the name of a man involved in a civil lawsuit involving his trucking company.

Tabish's attorney, J. Tony Serra, challenged Owen, who has been convicted on both state and federal charges for trafficking a controlled substance, saying Owen was lying and instead was just "money hungry."

Serra said Owen had told Tabish's investigator, Blair Abbott, Frazer had acted alone and was trying to swindle money away from Tabish in the process.

Owen said Abbott "coached" him into saying that and the investigator was "making threats to me and I told him what wanted to hear to survive."

Frazer, who was granted immunity from charges of being an accomplice to murder, was also called back to testify on Tuesday regarding Owen's alleged involvement in discrediting Dillard.

Frazer said Tabish told him to contact Ishma and provide witnesses to discredit Dillard. He said after telling Tabish what kind of compensation Ishma wanted, Tabish told Frazer to "take care of it."

Additionally Frazer rejected Tabish's claim he never asked Frazer to assist him in obtaining an alibi from two other men in a separate case, which ultimately led to three felony convictions for Tabish.

Frazer said although the two men never testified for Tabish, Tabish gave Frazer a letter containing what he wanted both men to say in a statement to investigators. Frazer said he never paid either man for their statements.

Prior to the prosecution's rebuttal witnesses testifying, Murphy's attorney, Michael Cristalli, called the last defense witness to the stand.

Dermatopathologist Dr. Bruce Ragsdale said the marks found on Binion's chest were most likely herpes, but could possibly be a form of skin cancer or a burn. He said the marks would have taken two to three weeks to develop.

Ragsdale said the prosecution's chief medical witness, Dr. Michael Baden, was "crazy" and "outrageous" for concluding the marks were the result of pressure being placed on the buttons of Binion's shirt.

"It is medically impossible for the marks to have been caused by a button," Ragsdale said.

Baden has testified Binion's death was the result of "burking," which occurs when "the mouth and nose are obstructed and someone sits on the chest to prevent the diaphragm from moving up and down." He said it is usually done "to leave as little injury to the body as possible."

Ragsdale said the redness found around the mouth and nose of Binion was the result of dermatitis, which could have been caused by the oils present in Binion's skin. He also said it could be the result of an irritation caused by chronic exposure to smoke from Binion's method of smoking heroin.

Binion's former maid, Mary Montoya-Gasciogne, former Las Vegas Mayor Jan Jones, an investor of Binion's, Kevin Page, and 7-Eleven cashier Marvin Reed who all saw Binion the day before his death all said they didn't see the red marks found around Binion's nose and mouth when they last saw him.

Prosecutors allege the red marks around Binion's nose and mouth were the result of someone trying to asphyxiate Binion.

Prosecutors allege Murphy and Tabish suffocated Binion and tried to make it look like an overdose and a day later Tabish went to steal Binion's silver in Pahrump. The defense contends Binion died of an accidental overdose of heroin, Xanax and Valium and Tabish was simply following Binion's order to preserve the silver for Binion's daughter.

Closing arguments in the case are scheduled for Thursday and Friday, with the jury entering deliberations as early as Friday afternoon.