Attorney Herb Sachs waits for a pretrial hearing in District Court on Monday, Dec. 15, 2003. Sachs and local attorney Michael Cristalli assisted Houston defense attorney Dick DeGuerin with Sandy Murphy’s defense. Murphy and co-defendant Rick Tabish were convicted of the 1998 murder of former casino owner Ted Binion, but the Nevada Supreme Court overturned the convictions and ordered a new trial. Murphy and Tabish then were acquitted.
Published Friday, Feb. 27, 2015 | 11 p.m.
Updated Saturday, Feb. 28, 2015 | 4:12 p.m.
Defense attorney Herb Sachs, a former New York state assemblyman who represented clients in several high-profile cases in Las Vegas, died Wednesday morning at Summerlin Hospital.
Sachs, 83, suffered complications after an abdominal surgery he had three weeks before, according to friend John Prendeville.
The Brooklyn, N.Y.-born lawyer worked on cases including the successful appeal of Sandy Murphy, whose 2000 murder conviction in connection with the September 1998 death of gaming figure Ted Binion was overturned.
Murphy called Sachs a friend and a "stand-up, honorable guy" who should be honored in death.
"He wasn't afraid of anybody," she said. "He was a guy who, if he believed in you and your cause, he would fight for you."
He also represented Cheryl Botzet, a mother originally convicted of second-degree murder in connection with the 2004 death of her diabetic daughter, who died because of a low insulin level.
A District Court judge ruled that the state presented inadmissible evidence, and a new trial was granted in the ongoing case.
Sachs also took on the case of 29-year-old Galina Kilova, a woman accused of leaving the scene of an accident in the November hit-and-run death of 63-year-old Las Vegas resident Michael Grubbs.
Kilova is scheduled for a jury trial June 1.
A lifelong Democrat, Sachs served in the New York Assembly in the 1960s representing Nassau County's 5th District.
Prendeville described him as a streetwise character and an advocate for lower-income people.
"The man was a zealot," Prendeville said. "He would fight tooth and nail for his clients, rich and poor."
His most important ally was his toy poodle, Max, who flew everywhere with him.
"Max was his world," Prendeville said.
Sachs will be buried Sunday at New Montefiore Cemetery in Farmingdale, N.Y.
A memorial service has not been scheduled.
He is survived by three children: Rick Sachs, a criminal defense attorney and former assistant district attorney in Bronx County; Cheryl Sachs Helfer, a private attorney in New York; and Suzan Waks, who has worked as a business consultant and resides in Los Angeles County.
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