Nevada politician guilty of using $70,000 meant for statue of slain officer for personal costs

[October 04, 2024]  LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada Republican politician who ran unsuccessfully two years ago for state treasurer was found guilty Thursday of using funds raised for a statue honoring a slain police officer for personal costs, including plastic surgery.
 
A jury convicted Michele Fiore, a former Las Vegas city councilwoman and state lawmaker, of six counts of federal wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, KLAS-TV in Las Vegas reported. The weeklong trial in U.S. District Court in Nevada began last week.

Michele Fiore, a Pahrump, Nev., judge who ran unsuccessfully for state treasurer in 2022, speaks to reporters outside U.S. District Court in Las Vegas on Friday, July 19, 2024, after pleading not guilty to federal fraud and conspiracy charges. Her attorney, Michael Sanft, watches at left. Fiore who ran unsuccessfully two years ago for state treasurer was found guilty Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024 of using funds raised for a statue honoring a slain police officer for political and personal costs, including plastic surgery.(AP Photo/Ken Ritter, File)

Each count carries a possible penalty of 20 years in prison. Fiore, who has been suspended without pay from her current elected position as a justice of the peace in rural Pahrump, Nevada, will be sentenced Jan. 6. She will remain free while she awaits sentencing.

Her attorney, Michael Sanft, said Fiore will appeal the conviction.

Federal prosecutors said at trial that Fiore had raised more than $70,000 for the statue of a Las Vegas police officer shot and killed in 2014 in the line of duty, but instead spent the money on plastic surgery, rent and her daughter's wedding.

“Michele Fiore used a tragedy to line her pockets,” federal prosecutor Dahoud Askar said.

FBI agents in 2021 subpoenaed records and searched Fiore’s home in northwest Las Vegas in connection with her campaign spending. Sanft told the jury that the FBI’s investigation was “sloppy.”

Fiore, who does not have a law degree, was appointed as a judge in deep-red Nye County in 2022 shortly after she lost her campaign for state treasurer. She was elected in June to complete the unexpired term of a judge who died. Pahrump is an hour’s drive west of Las Vegas.

The 54-year-old served in the state Legislature from 2012 to 2016, making headlines posing with guns and her family for Christmas cards. She was a Las Vegas councilwoman from 2017 to 2022.

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