Gov. Joe Lombardo admitted one non-willful Ethics Law violation over campaign use of his sheriff's uniform and badge and agreed to pay $5,000, replacing a 2023 willful-violation ruling and $20,000 fine, 2025
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The Nevada Commission on Ethics, acting on complaints filed in 2021, accused then-Sheriff Joe Lombardo of improperly using government property by campaigning for governor with images and video of him in uniform or showing his badge. After a July 2023 hearing the commission voted 4-2 to find willful violations and imposed a $20,000 fine and public censure, well below the $1.6 million its staff had proposed. Lombardo challenged the ruling in court; a Carson City judge dismissed his petition on a technicality, and in June 2025 the Nevada Supreme Court unanimously reversed that dismissal and sent the case back to district court. On September 23, 2025, the commission voted 5-3 to approve a stipulated agreement in which Lombardo admits one non-willful violation of the Ethics Law and agrees to pay $5,000 to the state general fund within 90 days (the commission's release calls it a civil penalty; The Nevada Independent notes it is not legally a fine, which requires a willful violation), with no willful-violation finding and no censure, and the appeals are mutually dismissed. The commission said the agreement also avoids further public expense on appeals. Commissioners who backed it said Nevada law does not specifically say whether an official may appear in uniform while campaigning, and the agreement notes that media and opponents also used images of Lombardo in his badge or uniform. Lombardo's attorneys said the case was politically motivated and should never have been brought, and that the resolution came 'with no finding of a willful violation, no public censure, and a modest $5,000 payment.' Commissioners who opposed the agreement said it reverses the commission's earlier final opinion.
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- Nevada Commission on Ethics - press release 'Lombardo and Formula 1 Tickets Cases Resolved' (Sept. 23, 2025) — Nevada Commission on Ethics - press release 'Lombardo and Formula 1 Tickets Cases Resolved' (Sept. 23, 2025)Document
Lombardo admits to one non-willful violation of the Ethics Law and agrees to pay a civil penalty of $5,000
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Contacted and made an on-record admission — exact wording not on record.
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