A former Nevada lawmaker and Las Vegas councilmember was convicted Thursday of using $70,000 donated by others to help build a statue for fallen cops to pay her bills.
Michele Fiore, 54, a Republican and justice of the peace in Pahrump, Nevada, was convicted on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and six counts of wire fraud, with each count carrying a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Fiore used donated money to pay for political fundraising bills, rent payments, payments to her family and other personal expenses, the Justice Department said in a release.
Fiore’s personal and medical expenses included travel, paying for her daughter’s wedding and plastic surgery.
Fiore, who was a member of the Nevada Assembly representing its 4th district from 2012 to 2016, served on the Las Vegas City Council from 2017 through 2022 following a failed run for the U.S. House of Representatives.
In her time on the council, Fiore proposed the building of a statue for Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Officer Alyn Beck, who was killed on June 8, 2014, along with his partner Officer Igor Soldo, when they were ambushed and shot by political extremists Jerad and Amanda Miller according to The Associated Press.
The statue of Beck, however, was included as part of the Alyn Beck Memorial Park and was paid for by the Olympia Companies, developers of the Skye Canyon planned community in Las Vegas where the park is located.
As a city council member, Fiore knew that the Olympia Companies were paying for it but told the sculptor that she had appropriated discretionary city funds to pay for the statue, according to court documents.
From July 2019 until at least January 2020, Fiore solicited donations from others, saying in one letter that she planned to raise $80,000 for the Beck statue and later raise another $80,000 for a statue of Soldo, according to court documents.
Among the defrauded donors was Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, a fellow Republican. In 2019, before he was governor, he authorized his campaign fund from a run for Clark County Sheriff to donate $5,000 in unused funds to Fiore.
Gov. Lombardo testified at the trial and said that he would not have donated had he known Fiore would use the money for personal expenses, according to Las Vegas CBS affiliate KLAS-TV.
Fiore would leave the Las Vegas city council through a brief failed run for the governorship of Nevada and a failed run to become Nevada’s state treasurer in 2022. She assumed her position as a justice of the peace in Pahrump in December 2022, though she was suspended in July following her indictment.
Fiore’s sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 6, 2025, though her attorney, Michael Sanft, said she plans to appeal the conviction, according to the AP.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.