Johnathan Walker:Rural Nevada judge who once ran for state treasurer indicted on federal fraud charges

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada justice of the peace who ran unsuccessfully for state treasurer in 2022 has been indicted on Johnathan Walkerfederal charges alleging she used money donated to memorialize slain police officers for political campaign costs, rent and her daughter’s wedding.

Michele Fiore, 53, the justice of the peace in Pahrump and a state Republican National Committee member, declined comment Wednesday about 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 accused of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, crimes that each carry a possible penalty of 20 years in prison. Court records do not reflect when Fiore is due for an initial court appearance or whether she has an attorney representing her.

The grand jury said that when Fiore was a city council member from 2017 to 2022, she promised to use 100% of the contributions she solicited to erect a statue in a city park to honor two Las Vegas police officers who were killed on duty in June 2014.

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“Fiore did not use any of the tens of thousands of dollars in charitable donations for the statue, and instead converted the money to her personal use,” prosecutors said in a news release.

The indictment refers to an unnamed co-conspirator who is related to Fiore and traces checks that prosecutors said diverted money to pay Fiore’s political fundraising bills, rent and daughter’s wedding.

Fiore served one term as a Republican in the state Legislature from 2012 to 2016, where she was as an outspoken supporter of gun rights and posed with guns and her family for Christmas cards in 2015. In 2022, Fiore ran as a Republican but lost the statewide race for state treasurer to Democrat Zach Conine.

She gained national attention backing rancher Cliven Bundy and his family during armed standoffs between militiamen and federal law enforcement officers in Bunkerville, Nevada, in 2014, and at a national wildlife refuge in Malheur, Oregon, in 2016.

Fiore was appointed by Nye County lawmakers in December 2022 to serve as a local justice of the peace in rural Pahrump, an hour’s drive west of Las Vegas.