No city in the world obsesses more about winning and losing than Las Vegas. Whether you're jammed elbow-to-elbow at the craps table or sweating out your latest foolish "investment" in the Megabucks, images of the ecstatic winner and lonesome loser are everywhere.
So it's only natural that locals would look at the Ted Binion murder trial with the same cynical eye. While the obvious winners are the state and the Binion family, and the losers are Rick Tabish and Sandy Murphy, there are plenty of daggers and laurels to go around. A few may surprise you:
Winner: District Judge Joe Bonaventure and his clerk Al Lasso.
The plain-spoken, no-nonsense judge has been an unheralded workhorse in the court system for two decades. Now he has enough celebrity to warrant his own TV show. I hope it doesn't go to his head; the bench needs a rock-solid, blue-collar judge.
Loser: Trial Consultants of Nevada. Measuring public response to the trial sounded like a great idea at the time, but it backfired something fierce when co-owner and defense consultant Bill Cassidy became part of the story.
Loser: Enrique Lacayo, M.D. Here's a reputation that will be hard to shake: Dr. Feelgood to the limousine set. Lacayo may already regret moving in to the house on Palomino Lane.
Winner: Peter Sheridan. Rarely has an admitted smack dealer been as lucky as the man who sold 12 balloons of black tar heroin to Binion the night before he died. Prisons are full of guys like Sheridan. Take that as a sign, Pete.
Winners: Channel 1 and Court TV. A media afterthought prior to the trial, the Greenspun family channel "burked" the competition with comprehensive coverage of the dramatic proceedings.
Loser: Tabish attorney Louis Palazzo. The promising lawyer will be remembered for his goofy phone book ploy during his closing argument, but the fact is he wouldn't have had to resort to theatrics if his client had learned to keep his mouth shut. The regular trips with co-counsel John Momot to "Rivera Live" were ill-advised.
Winners: Becky and Nick Behnen. Becky accused Murphy of murder only hours after Binion's death. For some reason, neither was called as a witness by the defense.
Loser: William Fuller. All the Irish octogenarian did was sell off his real estate and dig deep into his own pocket - estimates range upward of a million bucks - for the "Irish lass" who professed her innocence.
Winners: Attorneys Bucky Buchanan, Rob Murdock and Tom Pitaro. These defense bit players set a standard of excellence in limited roles. Buchanan, you will recall, won an acquittal for defendant David Mattsen on federal gun charges. Which brings us to ...
Loser: David Mattsen. He walked on the weapons beef, but his erratic behavior has Metro and the prosecution looking at him as a lackey for Tabish prior to Binion's death. He's now being fitted for a penitentiary cell. Speaking of tailored accommodations ...
Losers: Remaining defendants. It's deal-cutting time, gentlemen. The Pahrump silver caper is officially a problem. Last one to the DA's office is a lifer.
Winner: Michael Baden, M.D. Despite never examining the body, the famous forensic pathologist provided enough grist for jurors to convict the defendants with his "burking" suffocation theory.
Loser: Lary Simms, M.D. Despite thoroughly examining the body, Simms' experienced opinion that Binion died of an overdose was swept aside by prosecutors. Go figure. Frankly, the man deserved better treatment.
Winner: The David & David Show. Prosecutors Roger and Wall have carved out a place for themselves in local legal history. Barring a dramatic overturning of the case, that is.
Winner: The Detective. P.I. Tom Dillard spun straw into gold, framed the most sensational murder case in the history of Las Vegas, and the defense never laid a glove on him.
Losers (or Winners, depending on your perspective): The legions of reporters and TV viewers who followed the tawdry tale of Tabish and Murphy with a religious zeal.
The trial is over. The defendants have been convicted.
Get a life.
John L. Smith's column appears Wednesdays in the Nevada Appeal. His columns also appear online at www.lvrj.com. He can be reached at Smith@lvrj.com or (702) 383-0295.
