Nevada
GOP politician who ran for state treasurer headed toward trial for fundraising fraud
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada Republican who ran unsuccessfully for state treasurer in 2022 pleaded not guilty Monday to two new charges and headed toward trial in two weeks on federal accusations she used funds raised for a statue honoring a slain police officer for political and personal costs, including her daughter’s wedding.
The new charges brought to seven the number of wire fraud and conspiracy counts against Michele Fiore, a former state Assembly and Las Vegas City Council member who has been suspended with pay from her elected position as a justice of the peace in rural Pahrump. Each count carries a possible penalty of 20 years in prison. Fiore had pleaded not guilty July 17 to a five-count criminal indictment.
Fiore and her defense attorney, Michael Sanft, invoked her right to a speedy trial and U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey in Las Vegas said jury selection will begin Sept. 24. Sanft and federal prosecutors Dahoud Askar and Alexander Gottfried told the judge they expect trial can be completed by the second week of October. Askar and Gottfried declined outside court to speak with reporters.
Neither Fiore nor Sanft commented to reporters about the case. They were accompanied by Fiore’s friend, Sigal Chattah, a lawyer and conservative GOP firebrand who lost a bid for state attorney general in 2022 to Aaron Ford, a Democrat.
Chattah also is representing one of six Nevada Republican party members accused of submitting certificates to Congress falsely declaring Donald Trump the winner of the state’s 2020 presidential election. A state judge in Las Vegas dismissed that so-called fake elector case over a venue challenge by attorneys for defendants including state GOP chairman Michael McDonald. Ford is appealing that decision to the state Supreme Court.
Fiore, 54, is a sometimes flamboyant political figure best known for supporting gun ownership and backing states’ rights advocate Cliven Bundy during and after armed standoffs against federal officers in Bunkerville, Nevada, in 2014, and at a national wildlife refuge in Oregon in 2016.
Fiore was appointed as a judge by Nye County lawmakers in 2022 after she lost her campaign for state treasurer. She was elected in June to complete the unexpired term of a judge who died. Pahrump is an hour’s drive west of Las Vegas.
Fiore served in the state Legislature from 2012 to 2016, making headlines posing with guns and her family for Christmas cards in 2015. She was a Las Vegas councilwoman from 2017 to 2022.
Maine
DOJ sues state for treatment of children with behavioral health disabilities
Maine unnecessarily segregates children with behavioral health disabilities in hospitals, residential facilities and a state-run juvenile detention facility, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday in a lawsuit seeking to force the state to make changes.
The actions violate the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Supreme Court’s 1999 Olmstead ruling that aimed to ensure that people with disabilities aren’t needlessly isolated while receiving government help, federal investigators contend.
The Justice Department notified Maine of its findings of civil rights violations in a June 2022 letter, pointing to what it described as a lack of sufficient community-based services that would allow the children to stay in their homes.
At the time, the department recommended that Maine use more state resources to maintain a pool of community-based service providers. It also recommended that Maine implement a policy that requires providers to serve eligible children and prohibit refusal of services.
“The State of Maine has an obligation to protect its residents, including children with behavioral health disabilities, and such children should not be confined to facilities away from their families and community resources,” Kristen Clarke, an assistant attorney general with the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement.
The governor and Legislature have worked to strengthen children’s behavioral health services, said Lindsay Hammes, a spokesperson for the state Department of Health and Human Services. The DHHS has also worked with the Justice Department to address its initial allegations from 2022, she said.
“We are deeply disappointed that the U.S. DOJ has decided to sue the state rather than continue our collaborative, good-faith effort to strengthen the delivery of children’s behavioral health services,” Hammes said. “The State of Maine will vigorously defend itself.”
In 2022, Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said improving behavioral health services for Maine children was one of her goals. Her administration also said that the shortcomings of the state’s behavioral health system stretched back many years, and that the COVID-19 pandemic set back progress.
Advocates welcomed the lawsuit, noting that 25 years after the Olmstead decision, children in Maine and their families are still waiting for the state to comply with the ruling.
“Despite calls for more than a decade to ensure the availability of those services, Maine has failed to do so. Unfortunately, this lawsuit was the necessary result of that continued failure,” said Atlee Reilly, managing attorney for Disability Rights Maine.
The ADA and Olmstead decision require state and local governments to ensure that the services they provide for children with disabilities are available in the most integrated setting appropriate to each child’s needs, investigators said.
Services can include assistance with daily activities, behavior management and individual or family counseling. Community-based behavioral health services also include crisis services that can help prevent a child from being institutionalized during a mental health crisis.
The lawsuit alleges that Maine administers its system in a way that limits behavioral health services in the community.
As a result, in order for Maine children to receive behavioral health services, they must enter facilities including the state-operated juvenile detention facility, Long Creek Youth Development Center. Others are at serious risk of entering these facilities, as their families struggle to keep them home despite the lack of necessary services.
The future of Long Creek has been a subject of much debate in recent years. In 2021, Mills vetoed a bill to close the facility last year.
GOP politician who ran for state treasurer headed toward trial for fundraising fraud
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada Republican who ran unsuccessfully for state treasurer in 2022 pleaded not guilty Monday to two new charges and headed toward trial in two weeks on federal accusations she used funds raised for a statue honoring a slain police officer for political and personal costs, including her daughter’s wedding.
The new charges brought to seven the number of wire fraud and conspiracy counts against Michele Fiore, a former state Assembly and Las Vegas City Council member who has been suspended with pay from her elected position as a justice of the peace in rural Pahrump. Each count carries a possible penalty of 20 years in prison. Fiore had pleaded not guilty July 17 to a five-count criminal indictment.
Fiore and her defense attorney, Michael Sanft, invoked her right to a speedy trial and U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey in Las Vegas said jury selection will begin Sept. 24. Sanft and federal prosecutors Dahoud Askar and Alexander Gottfried told the judge they expect trial can be completed by the second week of October. Askar and Gottfried declined outside court to speak with reporters.
Neither Fiore nor Sanft commented to reporters about the case. They were accompanied by Fiore’s friend, Sigal Chattah, a lawyer and conservative GOP firebrand who lost a bid for state attorney general in 2022 to Aaron Ford, a Democrat.
Chattah also is representing one of six Nevada Republican party members accused of submitting certificates to Congress falsely declaring Donald Trump the winner of the state’s 2020 presidential election. A state judge in Las Vegas dismissed that so-called fake elector case over a venue challenge by attorneys for defendants including state GOP chairman Michael McDonald. Ford is appealing that decision to the state Supreme Court.
Fiore, 54, is a sometimes flamboyant political figure best known for supporting gun ownership and backing states’ rights advocate Cliven Bundy during and after armed standoffs against federal officers in Bunkerville, Nevada, in 2014, and at a national wildlife refuge in Oregon in 2016.
Fiore was appointed as a judge by Nye County lawmakers in 2022 after she lost her campaign for state treasurer. She was elected in June to complete the unexpired term of a judge who died. Pahrump is an hour’s drive west of Las Vegas.
Fiore served in the state Legislature from 2012 to 2016, making headlines posing with guns and her family for Christmas cards in 2015. She was a Las Vegas councilwoman from 2017 to 2022.
Maine
DOJ sues state for treatment of children with behavioral health disabilities
Maine unnecessarily segregates children with behavioral health disabilities in hospitals, residential facilities and a state-run juvenile detention facility, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday in a lawsuit seeking to force the state to make changes.
The actions violate the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Supreme Court’s 1999 Olmstead ruling that aimed to ensure that people with disabilities aren’t needlessly isolated while receiving government help, federal investigators contend.
The Justice Department notified Maine of its findings of civil rights violations in a June 2022 letter, pointing to what it described as a lack of sufficient community-based services that would allow the children to stay in their homes.
At the time, the department recommended that Maine use more state resources to maintain a pool of community-based service providers. It also recommended that Maine implement a policy that requires providers to serve eligible children and prohibit refusal of services.
“The State of Maine has an obligation to protect its residents, including children with behavioral health disabilities, and such children should not be confined to facilities away from their families and community resources,” Kristen Clarke, an assistant attorney general with the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement.
The governor and Legislature have worked to strengthen children’s behavioral health services, said Lindsay Hammes, a spokesperson for the state Department of Health and Human Services. The DHHS has also worked with the Justice Department to address its initial allegations from 2022, she said.
“We are deeply disappointed that the U.S. DOJ has decided to sue the state rather than continue our collaborative, good-faith effort to strengthen the delivery of children’s behavioral health services,” Hammes said. “The State of Maine will vigorously defend itself.”
In 2022, Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said improving behavioral health services for Maine children was one of her goals. Her administration also said that the shortcomings of the state’s behavioral health system stretched back many years, and that the COVID-19 pandemic set back progress.
Advocates welcomed the lawsuit, noting that 25 years after the Olmstead decision, children in Maine and their families are still waiting for the state to comply with the ruling.
“Despite calls for more than a decade to ensure the availability of those services, Maine has failed to do so. Unfortunately, this lawsuit was the necessary result of that continued failure,” said Atlee Reilly, managing attorney for Disability Rights Maine.
The ADA and Olmstead decision require state and local governments to ensure that the services they provide for children with disabilities are available in the most integrated setting appropriate to each child’s needs, investigators said.
Services can include assistance with daily activities, behavior management and individual or family counseling. Community-based behavioral health services also include crisis services that can help prevent a child from being institutionalized during a mental health crisis.
The lawsuit alleges that Maine administers its system in a way that limits behavioral health services in the community.
As a result, in order for Maine children to receive behavioral health services, they must enter facilities including the state-operated juvenile detention facility, Long Creek Youth Development Center. Others are at serious risk of entering these facilities, as their families struggle to keep them home despite the lack of necessary services.
The future of Long Creek has been a subject of much debate in recent years. In 2021, Mills vetoed a bill to close the facility last year.
