Michele Fiore Denies Misusing Memorial Donations as Judicial Discipline Hearing Opens in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS — Michele Fiore, the former Las Vegas councilwoman and suspended Pahrump justice of the peace, testified Monday that she never spent donations on herself, as a state judicial discipline hearing into the conduct behind her federal fraud conviction opened in Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. It was the first time Fiore had testified directly about the memorial-statue fundraising scheme, according to the Review-Journal.

Fiore appeared before the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline, which has charged her with three violations of judicial conduct rules tied to the actions behind her 2024 federal guilty verdict on conspiracy and wire fraud charges, according to the Review-Journal's reporting summarized by News In Las Vegas. She denied using donated money for personal expenses during Monday's testimony, the opening day of the public hearing.

The case behind the hearing

Federal prosecutors accused Fiore of raising tens of thousands of dollars for a park and statue honoring Alyn Beck, a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officer who was shot and killed in 2014, according to the Review-Journal. Trial testimony showed the statue was in fact built — but paid for by developer Olympia Companies, not by the donations Fiore solicited, the Review-Journal reported. Prosecutors said Fiore spent the donated money on personal costs, including rent, plastic surgery and her daughter's wedding.

A federal jury convicted Fiore in October 2024 of six counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, the Associated Press reported. She was awaiting sentencing when President Donald Trump pardoned her, the AP reported. The pardon ended the criminal case — and, as part of its terms, she was no longer obligated to return money to the donors, according to reporting on the pardon's terms. Witnesses at her trial included a dozen victims, among them the slain officer's widow and Nevada's governor, who testified he had donated campaign funds to the planned memorial, Reuters reported.

Why a pardon does not end the discipline case

The central legal fight at the hearing is not whether Fiore raised the money — it is whether a presidential pardon shields a judge from state judicial discipline, and whether the conduct continued on her watch. In prehearing briefs filed October 5, Fiore maintained that the fundraising occurred before she assumed judicial office and that no independent misconduct during her judicial service had been established, according to the case record published by Our Nevada Judges. The prosecuting officer argued that her alleged failure to notify donors or return their funds continued after she became a judge, and that the pardon did not foreclose judicial discipline, according to the same record.

The Commission suspended Fiore from her Nye County justice of the peace position following her federal indictment, in a unanimous vote of its seven members, the Great Basin Sun reported at the time. She continued to receive her salary during the suspension — $90,233 in 2023, according to a Nye County spokesman cited by the Great Basin Sun — and, according to Nye County figures reported by Reuters, will have collected more than $250,000 in salary and benefits from indictment through the end of her term in January. Fiore, a former Las Vegas city councilwoman and state lawmaker who ran unsuccessfully for state treasurer in 2022, was appointed to the Pahrump bench by Governor Joe Lombardo, according to the Associated Press.

The Commission's own suspension order, issued in May 2025, previews the prosecuting officer's theory: it found that Fiore, after becoming a judge, had "continued to defraud the donors by keeping donations to which she was not entitled and continued to fail to notify them she used their funds for personal expenses instead of for the statue," according to the order quoted in reporting on the case. That continuing-conduct argument is why the hearing is happening at all despite the pardon — the criminal case punished the fundraising, while the discipline case asks what Fiore owed donors, and the public, once she wore a robe.

The hearing's ground rules were set in the weeks before it opened. On October 2, the Commission granted Fiore's unopposed request for witnesses Jason Gunnell and Maryian Ausiello to testify remotely, according to the case record published by Our Nevada Judges. On October 9, the Commission excluded the proposed testimony and expert statement of Keith R. Fisher, concluding his opinions on jurisdiction, the sufficiency of the charges and procedural issues would not help it decide whether Fiore committed the alleged acts. The Commission also granted a request to deploy high-definition cameras in the hearing room, with Our Nevada Judges founding director Alex Falconi designated pool coordinator — meaning Nevadans can watch the proceedings rather than rely on summaries of them.

What happens next

The hearing, held at the State Bar of Nevada with high-definition cameras granted pool access, is expected to test both sides' accounts of the fundraising and its aftermath. At issue, as the Commission has framed the case, is whether Fiore's conduct undermined public confidence in the judiciary — the standard that governs Nevada judicial discipline regardless of the criminal case's outcome. The Commission can impose sanctions up to removal from the bench; Fiore's term ends in January, and she lost her bid for re-election last month, according to MoneyWise's reporting on the case.

Fiore has described herself, in a statement issued through Nye County after her suspension, as the target of federal prosecutors because she stood up for the Bundy family in 2018, and after her pardon she accused the federal government and media outlets of a decade-long conspiracy against her, the Associated Press reported. Monday's testimony was her first chance to make that case under oath, in person, to the body that decides whether she keeps her title. The hearing continues this week. More Nevada court coverage is on the Previously news front, including tonight's jury verdict in the Peachy the flamingo case.

Sources: Las Vegas Review-Journal, October 19, 2026; Associated Press, October 2026; Reuters, October 2026; Our Nevada Judges case record, October 2026; Great Basin Sun, July 2024.