Michele Fiore, a former Las Vegas City Council member convicted of spending donations for a statue honoring a fallen police officer on herself, has received "a full and unconditional pardon" from President Trump—heading off her sentencing scheduled for next month. "Today, I stand before you—not just as a free woman, but as a vindicated soul whose prayers were heard, whose faith held firm, and whose truth could not be buried by injustice," she texted the Las Vegas Review Journal. "Donald Trump's blatant disregard for law enforcement is sickening, and pardoning someone who stole from a police memorial fund is a disgrace," said Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford.
A jury convicted Fiore of six counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud last fall, per the Hill. Prosecutors said she took $70,000 that she had solicited from donors for the construction of a statue honoring a slain officer and used it to pay for plastic surgery, rent, and her daughter's wedding. A judge dismissed Fiore's request for a new trial last week and scheduled her sentencing for May 14. Then, on Thursday, her lawyers filed a motion to vacate the sentencing date, submitting the president's pardon with it.
Fiore also has been a Nevada legislator and run statewide campaigns. She is now a justice of the peace, and she said Thursday she plans to return to the bench despite being suspended without pay by the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline, per the Review-Journal. Had her case reached sentencing, Fiore would have faced up to 20 years in prison on each count. Las Vegas police officer Alyn Beck was shot and killed with his partner in 2014. (More presidential pardon stories.)
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