‘Sloppy but not criminal,’ says ex-councilwoman’s attorney as fraud trial opens

In their opening statements for the wire fraud trial of former Las Vegas Councilwoman Michele Fiore Wednesday, attorneys presented divergent pictures of Fiore: a prosecutor alleged she took advantage of the community’s desire to honor fallen officers for personal gain and Fiore’s attorney said she had been “sloppy but not criminal.”

Fiore, 53, of Pahrump was indicted by a federal grand jury in July on charges of wire fraud and conspiracy. Prosecutors allege that she raised tens of thousands of dollars for a statue of fallen Metropolitan Police Department officer Alyn Beck, but spent the money on herself and her daughter’s wedding.

Fiore, who most recently served as a Pahrump justice of the peace, has pleaded not guilty.

After opening statements, prosecutors presented an eclectic group of witnesses, including Beck’s widow, prominent defense attorney David Chesnoff and the sculptor of the statue at the center of the case.

Attorneys have indicated Gov. Joe Lombardo, Mayor Carolyn Goodman and Las Vegas Councilwoman Victoria Seaman could be among future witnesses. Lombardo was among the donors who gave money for the statue.

Fiore’s lawyer also alleged that the FBI had a camera watching Fiore’s house over a seven-month period.

Opening statements

In 2014, Beck and Igor Soldo, another Metro officer, were fatally shot.

In his opening statement, prosecutor Alexander Gottfried said Fiore “took advantage of those officers’ memories for her personal gain.”

Prosecutors will show Fiore spent the funds she received on rent, her daughter’s wedding and plastic surgery and other items, and she tried to conceal her fraud, he said.

“None of the money she raised, not one cent, was spent on a memorial for Officer Beck,” he said.

Gottfried alleged Fiore promised donors 100 percent of contributions would be used for a statue and never asked them if she could use the money for something else. The donors would not have given if they knew Fiore would spend the money on herself, he said.

Fiore’s attorney, Michael Sanft, asked the jury to reserve judgment until the end of the trial and criticized the way the FBI investigated Fiore.

The FBI is “supposed to search for the truth,” but evidence will show it failed to do so, he said.

“They just are producing garbage in this case,” he said.

The FBI did “sloppy work,” Sanft alleged. He said Fiore and her daughter had been sloppy in their accounting, too, and he described their actions as “sloppy but not criminal.”

Fiore ran for state treasurer in 2022.

Testimony about statue’s genesis

At the December 2018 groundbreaking for the park named for Alyn Beck that would eventually include a statue of him, Fiore proposed a statue of Beck, an idea she said she had conceived that morning “in the shower,” according to prosecutors.

Nicole Beck, Beck’s wife, thinks she first met Fiore at that ceremony.

Beck was surprised when she heard about the statue, she said, and was initially enthusiastic. But she was also conflicted, she said.

She thought it would be disturbing if the statue didn’t look like her husband. And she worried about it becoming a target of anti-police vandalism.

Beck, who spoke quietly during her testimony, started crying as she described her concerns.

Beck said she was not involved in efforts to raise money for the statue and didn’t know Fiore was doing so.

“I had no knowledge of how the statue was going to be financed,” she said.

Statue sculptor Brian Hanlon, who is based in New Jersey, testified that he has sculpted about 600 statues of religious, civic and athletic subjects, typically charging $125,000 to $150,000 for a project.

Hanlon said he had not had direct contact with Fiore before he met with her ahead of the dedication ceremony. But people had reached out who he understood to be her staffers. He was supposed to be paid about $75,000 for the statue, he said, and received about $90,000 in total for the statue process.

Under questioning from Gottfried, Hanlon spoke about checks he had received from a property company that shared an address with Olympia Companies. The Review-Journal previously reported that the park’s construction would be bankrolled by Olympia, which developed Skye Canyon.

In his opening statement, Gottfried said Beck’s statue was donated by the developer that constructed the park.

Hanlon said he never got any payment from Fiore. But she did help him get other statue commissions, he said, including a statue of Mayor Carolyn Goodman that he didn’t seem eager to talk about.

“You’re spoiling a big surprise,” he told Sanft during cross examination.

Fiore, who sat with her chair angled towards the jury for most of the day, smiled during Hanlon’s testimony.

A donor and an FBI agent

Under questioning from prosecutor Dahoud Askar, Chesnoff said he couldn’t recall Fiore asking him to donate to a charity, but he said he authorized his office manager to sign a $5,000 check to a Bright Present Foundation in December 2019.

The Review-Journal has reported that foundation was led by Fiore, but Chesnoff said he didn’t remember her running it.

Chesnoff said he would not have given the money for a purpose other than memorializing Beck and Soldo. Fiore never contacted him to ask if she could use the money for another purpose, he said.

FBI Special Agent Douglas Smith testified about assisting with a search warrant in January 2021 at Fiore’s home. There was also a warrant to search the person of Fiore, he said.

Smith said agents were seeking evidence of campaign finance-related money laundering and wire fraud.

The Review-Journal previously reported that Fiore’s home was raided by the FBI in 2021 as part of a campaign finance investigation.

Sanft asked Smith if he was aware the FBI posted a camera that overlooked Fiore’s house for seven months. Smith said he wasn’t.

Sanft said after court that he thinks the surveillance ended when the search warrant was served.

The FBI declined to comment.

Fiore is still upset about the search.

“They did not search warrant my house,” she said after the trial day was over. “They raided, looted and robbed it.”

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.