Julianna Clare Strout: Pageant queen turned city official posed as paralegal to see lover in ICE custody
NORTH BAY VILLAGE, FLORIDA: A city commissioner in Florida pleaded guilty to posing as a paralegal to gain access to a federal immigration lockup in order to meet a detained man prosecutors described as her “romantic partner.”
According to a press release from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, Julianna Clare Strout has been a North Bay Village City Commissioner since November 2018. According to her bio, she is also a former Miss Rhode Island winner. The incident occurred in October 2021, when the Krome Service Processing Center had “suspended social visits due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to the DOJ. "Legal visits, however, were permitted."
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The 36-year-old admitted she appeared thrice at the facility. There, she “told officials that she worked as a paralegal for a particular law firm and that she needed to visit a detainee to have legal documents signed,” the DOJ said. She even “presented officials with a letter on the law firm’s letterhead.”
As per Law and Crime, the DOJ said, “Strout had never worked for the law firm,” adding, “Instead, she was romantically involved with the detainee.” On one instance, when Strout was denied entry, she showed her North Bay Village Commissioner badge and asked officials to pass her through the door since “she was a public official,” the DOJ said.
The romantic interest is only listed under the moniker “Individual 1.”
Timeline of Strout's attempts to gain entry
According to the factual proffer, Strout emailed ICE officials on October 18, 2021, with a letter for permission to visit. The letter contained Strout’s “name, date of birth, social security number, and driver license photo.” That electronic request was approved on October 22, 2021.
However, as the process was taking time, the factual proffer says, Strout attempted to use the document in person on October 18, 20, and 22 “to enter or attempt to enter” the ICE facility.
The first attempt was denied as she did not have a valid Visitation Approval letter from the facility. That is when she flashed her North Bay government badge and a supervisor allowed Strout in. However, Individual 1 cut that meeting short.
“Individual 1 asked Krome Detention Officers to end the meeting,” the document states. “Individual 1 subsequently told ICE Supervisory Deportation Officers that he and STROUT had been in a romantic relationship, and he did not want to see her.”
Strout reappeared on October 20 but was prohibited from entering. She appeared for a third time on October 22 with a Visitation Approval letter but it didn’t work either. Officers informed Strout that the law firm had been contacted and that ICE knew she had no permission to use either the attorney’s name or the law firm’s name to enter the facility.
Strout, however, “maintained that she worked” for an attorney at the firm but was refrained by the guards.
On November 2, 2021, the factual proffer said, Strout tried to attend an immigration proceeding for Individual 1, this time claiming to be Individual 1’s wife. The document adds that she “was denied entry because she had previously tried to enter Krome under fraud and false pretenses.”
Strout’s Instagram page suggests that her office is nonpartisan while other posts and news articles suggest she had a key role in a Republican-connected “conservative climate rally.” The 36-year-old pleaded guilty to “attempting to enter, and entering, a federal facility using fraud and false pretenses,” the DOJ said. She has been sentenced to serve one year on probation and 50 hours of community service.