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Nevada Politician Convicted of Pilfering $70K for Cop’s Statue on Surgery

Michele Fiore, a former Republican lawmaker, used the pilfered funds for personal use, including to fund plastic surgery and her rent.

A former Las Vegas city councilwoman was found guilty on Thursday of wire fraud charges after a jury determined she looted tens of thousands of dollars from a charity she set up to build a memorial to a slain police officer. Michele Fiore, a longtime fixture on the Nevada political scene and a justice of the peace in Pahrump, was convicted of six counts of federal wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She appeared subdued as the verdict was read aloud, KLAS-TV reported. Prosecutors argued during her trial that she’d raised more than $70,000 for a statue to honor the late Las Vegas Metro Police Officer Alyn Beck, only to spend the money on personal expenses like plastic surgery and rent. Each count carries a possible penalty of 20 years behind bars, according to the Associated Press. Fiore’s attorney, Michael Sanft, said she plans to appeal the conviction, pointing to the speed with which the verdict was returned by the jury—less than two hours after they withdrew to deliberate. “Typically when people are that fast, they’ve already made up their minds even before the closing arguments so it had to have been some type of testimony that had occurred in the middle of the trial that caused the majority of them to say, oh, that’s all we needed,” he told KLAS-TV.