Michele Fiore hears cases on last day before suspension from bench
PAHRUMP — Pahrump Justice of the Peace Michele Fiore heard cases Thursday for the last time before her suspension from the bench begins.
The next time Fiore is in court, she’ll be on the other side of the bench.
A federal grand jury indicted her on wire fraud and conspiracy charges last week. Prosecutors have accused her of raising more than $70,000 for a fallen officers memorial, but spending the money on herself and her daughter’s wedding. Fiore has pleaded not guilty and defended her political record.
The suspension will begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday, and Fiore will be paid while she’s suspended, according to a Commission on Judicial Discipline decision.
State law calls for the commission to suspend a judge who is indicted for a felony charge.
On Thursday morning, Fiore heard several traffic violation cases and two cases in which defendants were jailed, but had no charges filed against them.
“It will be my last session until I win this case with the corrupt U.S. attorney’s office,” she said during a lull in hearings.
One of the inmates chuckled. “We still love you,” he told her.
For the most part, Fiore acted like nothing was amiss during her hearings.
She closed a traffic case and gave the defendant 30 extra days to pay a fine because of his divorce costs.
She let a woman in another traffic case off with a warning and two illegal parking violations.
“Next time, I’m not gonna give you a break,” she said, seeming to imply that she would hear cases again in the future.
Fiore told the first defendant in custody that there were no charges against him and he would be released.
The second case, in which the defendant was the man who had professed his love for Fiore, was more complicated.
Prosecutors had not filed charges against him after a recent arrest. He had still been in custody for a week, Public Defender Alexis Duecker told the court.
He had a prior case in which he was given a suspended jail sentence of 180 days and ordered to take domestic violence classes. Even though charges hadn’t been filed after the new arrest, Nye County Deputy District Attorney Tanis Wright wanted the man’s sentence imposed, meaning he would have to go to jail. He hadn’t completed the classes, Wright said.
Duecker asked for the man to get a second chance and a new hearing in a week at which point he would have to have completed a class.
Fiore seemed skeptical of Wright’s argument.
“What’s disingenuous is when I have no charges filed,” Fiore said. “There is no violation of the sentence because your office failed to file charges. So I’m not going to put him in jail for 120 days.”
She set a new hearing and told the defendant: “I am the fairest judge of them all here in Nye County, but I’m not going to be here next week. And if you don’t do what you said you were going to do when you were in court today, I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Then, Fiore smiled at the gallery and walked off the bench.
Pahrump Justice of the Peace Kirk Vitto will hear Fiore’s cases for the immediate future, according to county spokesperson Arnold Knightly.
Public Defender Kelley Blatnik said she was concerned about Fiore’s suspension because defendants have constitutional rights to have their cases heard in a timely manner. The court normally has two judges. Without a second judge, people’s constitutional rights will be violated, she said.
Vitto is a former prosecutor, Blatnik said, and she thinks that he will not be able to hear cases in which he previously prosecuted the defendant. Normally, those cases would go to Fiore. What happens to them now is unclear.
Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.