A Miami-area politician pleaded guilty Thursday to lying about being a lawyer so that she could meet with her lover who was being held at an immigration detention center, according to federal prosecutors.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said that Julianna Strout, 36, pleaded guilty to entering a federal facility using fraud and false pretenses. She was sentenced to one year of probation and 50 hours of community service.
Strout is a commissioner for North Bay Village, a small municipality just north of Miami that sits on two islands in Biscayne Bay.
She told Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on three separate occasions in October 2021 that she was a paralegal in a scheme to circumvent a COVID-19 lockdown at ICE’s Krome Detention Center in Miami.
Strout claimed to be working for a particular law firm. She also presented ICE officials with a letter using the law firm’s letterhead and said she need to get the detainee to sign legal documents.
The detainee was her romantic partner, according to prosecutors.
The law firm told prosecutors they had never employed Strout.
