MIAMI – A former beauty queen pleaded guilty and was subsequently sentenced for sneaking into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center to see her husband, according to the Justice Department and local reports.
Julianna Clare Stout is a former Miss Rhode Island. She was also elected as a commissioner in North Bay Village, Florida, in 2018. She is married to ex-MLB pitcher Brayan Villareal of Venezuela.
Stout pleaded guilty on Thursday and has been sentenced to one year of probation and 50 hours of community service for lying her way into the Krome Service Processing Center in 2021, Fox News reported.
The public official told a local news outlet that she was simply visiting her husband at the facility. She also confirmed that she is currently eight months pregnant.
Villarrael, who played for the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers from 2011 to 2013, was reportedly the subject of a kidnapping attempt in 2013, according to ESPN.
Krome suspended visits in 2020 due to COVID-19, but permitted legal visits, the DOJ said in a press release.
While personal visits were suspended, Stout visited the facility on three occasions posing as a paralegal for a particular law firm. She used a ruse, saying she needed to get documents signed from a detainee. Moreover, she even presented a letter to federal officials using the firm’s letterhead.
However, the law firm never permitted the former beauty queen to use their letterhead.
According to Stout’s government biography, she won the Miss Rhode Island pageant in 2009 during her final semester in college.
Her term as commissioner expires this month, federal prosecutors said.
It was unclear why Villareal was being housed at Krome, or where he is currently located.
North Bay Village said it was “aware of the plea agreement entered into by Commissioner Strout,” but said it would not take action due the matter not involving a felony conviction, the Daily Mail reported, citing local news.
