LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Pahrump decide and former Las Vegas Metropolis Councilwoman Michele Fiore was a no-show in courtroom Monday, days after President Donald Trump pardoned her on federal wire fraud fees.
In October 2024, a jury convicted Fiore, suspended in July 2024 from her place as justice courtroom decide in Nye County, after deliberating for 2 hours. The panel convicted her on one depend of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 6 counts of wire fraud for taking cash meant for fallen law enforcement officials’ memorials and spending it on herself.
“There is no lawful conviction,” Fiore mentioned in textual content messages Monday, including she would return to the bench “once the procedural formalities are concluded.”
Fiore was convicted as a result of a jury discovered her responsible, UNLV professor Benjamin Edwards mentioned. “The record is clear that a jury reached the conclusion that she was guilty of a crime. That is reality. The presidential pardon has the effect of relieving her from any federal legal penalty, sentence, or other legal detriment from the conviction. It does not erase reality, though.”
On Thursday, April 24, Fiore introduced the president’s pardon, signed the day earlier than.
“On Monday, I will walk back into my courtroom as the elected justice of the peace — not because man permitted it, but because God ordained it,” Fiore mentioned in an announcement.
Fiore didn’t seem on Monday when the 8 Information Now Investigators visited courtroom.
On June 8, 2014, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Division officers Alyn Beck and Igor Soldo have been gunned down whereas they have been on their lunch break in northeast Las Vegas. Fiore claimed to boost cash for statues for the fallen officers, and a number of the high-profile residents from whom she collected donations have been Republican Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo and the Native 872 union boss Tommy White, each of whom testified at trial.
In the course of the trial, Lombardo mentioned he was a sufferer. He has not commented publicly on the pardon.
Earlier this month, Fiore misplaced her bid for both an acquittal or a brand new trial, a decide had dominated. Fiore remained on unpaid suspension from the Nevada Fee on Judicial Self-discipline as of Monday.
“The only way my full story will ever be told is if I write it myself,” she mentioned, criticizing the media protection. Fiore has alleged investigations into her started following her assist for rancher Cliven Bundy and the armed standoff he had with the federal government in 2014. In courtroom paperwork filed final 12 months, she claimed the federal government had labeled her as a “domestic terrorist.”
Fiore might face state fees ought to the lawyer common or the district lawyer resolve to maneuver ahead.
“In order for a case involving Michele Fiore to come over to our office, it would have to be sent over by a law enforcement agency,” Clark County District Lawyer Steve Wolfson mentioned on the radio present “The Middle Ground.” “I don’t know that there’s a law enforcement agency that would send that over to my office for review. If they did we would review it like any other case and make a decision one way or another to file charges. But to my knowledge, nobody’s contacted me.”
Final week, an administrator at Nye County Justice Courtroom informed the 8 Information Now Investigators that they have been ready for steering from the Fee on Judicial Self-discipline. Fiore, first elected as a Republican Nevada assemblywoman in 2012, later served as Las Vegas mayor professional tem and unsuccessfully ran for governor and treasurer as a Republican. Nye County Commissioners appointed her to her judgeship in late 2022. Final June, voters re-elected Fiore, who shouldn’t be an lawyer, to that place.
