LAS VEGAS – A Nevada justice of the peace who ran unsuccessfully for state treasurer in 2022 has been indicted on a federal level, accused of using money donated to a memorial for slain cops for campaign expenses, rent and her daughter's wedding.
Michele Fiore, 53, a justice of the peace in rural Pahrump and a member of the state's Republican National Committee, declined Wednesday to comment on the five-count indictment filed a day earlier in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas. The former Nevada State Assembly and Las Vegas City Council member said she had not yet seen the document.
Fiore is charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, each felonies punishable by 20 years in prison. Court records don’t indicate when Fiore is on account of appear in court for the primary time. Her attorney, George Kelesis, declined to comment.
The grand jury was told that in her tenure as a city councilor from 2017 to 2022, Fiore promised to make use of 100% of the donations she solicited to erect a statue in a city park to honor two Las Vegas cops killed within the line of duty in June 2014.
“Fiore did not use a cent of the tens of thousands of dollars in charitable donations for the statue, but instead used the money for her own personal purposes,” prosecutors said in a press release.
The indictment refers to an unnamed co-conspirator related to Fiore and points to checks through which prosecutors say money was embezzled to pay Fiore's political fundraising bills, his rent and his daughter's wedding.
Fiore served one term within the state legislature as a Republican from 2012 to 2016, where she was a powerful advocate for gun rights and posed with guns and her family for Christmas cards in 2015.
She gained national attention when she assisted rancher Cliven Bundy and his family during armed clashes between militia members and federal police in Bunkerville, Nevada, in 2014 and at a national wildlife refuge in Oregon in 2016.
In 2022, Fiore ran as a Republican but lost the statewide race for state treasurer to Democrat Zach Conine.
Fiore was appointed by Nye County lawmakers in December 2022 as considered one of two local justices of the peace in rural Pahrump, an hour's drive west of Las Vegas.
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