Promising return Monday, Michele Fiore a no-show at court for judge job
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Pahrump judge and former Las Vegas City Councilwoman Michele Fiore was a no-show in court Monday, days after President Donald Trump pardoned her on federal wire fraud charges.
In October 2024, a jury convicted Fiore, suspended in July 2024 from her position as justice court judge in Nye County, after deliberating for two hours. The panel convicted her on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and six counts of wire fraud for taking money meant for fallen police officers' memorials and spending it on herself.
'There is no lawful conviction,' Fiore said in text messages Monday, adding she would return to the bench 'once the procedural formalities are concluded.'
Fiore was convicted because a jury found her guilty, UNLV professor Benjamin Edwards said. '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 announced the president's pardon, signed the day before.
'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 said in a statement.
Fiore did not appear on Monday when the 8 News Now Investigators visited court.
On June 8, 2014, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers Alyn Beck and Igor Soldo were gunned down while they were on their lunch break in northeast Las Vegas. Fiore claimed to raise money for statues for the fallen officers, and some of the high-profile citizens from whom she collected donations were Republican Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo and the Local 872 union boss Tommy White, both of whom testified at trial.
During the trial, Lombardo said he was a victim. He has not commented publicly on the pardon.
Earlier this month, Fiore lost her bid for either an acquittal or a new trial, a judge had ruled. Fiore remained on unpaid suspension from the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline as of Monday.
'The only way my full story will ever be told is if I write it myself,' she said, criticizing the media coverage. Fiore has alleged investigations into her began following her support for rancher Cliven Bundy and the armed standoff he had with the government in 2014. In court documents filed last year, she claimed the government had labeled her as a 'domestic terrorist.'
Fiore could face state charges should the attorney general or the district attorney decide to move forward.
'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 Attorney Steve Wolfson said on the radio show '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.'
Last week, an administrator at Nye County Justice Court told the 8 News Now Investigators that they were waiting for guidance from the Commission on Judicial Discipline. Fiore, first elected as a Republican Nevada assemblywoman in 2012, later served as Las Vegas mayor pro tem and unsuccessfully ran for governor and treasurer as a Republican. Nye County Commissioners appointed her to her judgeship in late 2022. Last June, voters re-elected Fiore, who is not an attorney, to that position.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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