December 19, 2025
Today in federal court, 47-year-old trans woman, Julie Winters, was sentenced to three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to felony intimidation of a federal officer.
Julie Winters was initially arrested at the ICE facility in Portland, Oregon this previous June, after protests took off at the height of the summer against the federal agency. At the time of her arrest, Julie lived across the street from the ICE facility in a low-income apartment that she hoped would get to be her “forever home”, before it became the epicenter of brutal assaults and aggression at the hands of federal agents against people in the city. For months, Julie’s neighborhood was bombarded by flash bangs, tear gas, pepper bullets, and other crowd control ammunitions used relentlessly for hours into each night. Notably, the elementary school to the east of the ICE facility and directly across the street from Julie’s apartment was forced to relocate after the feds poisoned the playground for months with tear gas and other explosives.
In late June, Julie was arrested at the facility after she allegedly attempted to place a bike lock on the building’s gate, in an effort to delay federal aggression against the protestors that night which resulted in multiple people being hospitalized. Federal agents allege that Julie menaced them with a knife and that she possessed an incendiary device, which was never recovered. Charges relating to possession of an incendiary device that night were ultimately dismissed by prosecutors after reviewing video footage directly refuting those specific allegations.
The night of her arrest, Julie was carrying a kitchen knife on her for the sake of self defense, as she is a victim of stalking and the police department has assured her there is nothing they can do about it. Julie tossed the knife into a bush when she realized federal agents were pursuing her after she attempted to chain up the gate, but she was still ultimately charged with felony intimidation of a federal officer. The feds referred to the officers who brutalized her that night as “her victims”. Julie left the facility after her violent arrest in an ambulance.
Julie was initially out on pre-trial release before being violently re-arrested by US Marshalls during a routine check-in with pre-trial services. She was then put into a solitary confinement cell for six weeks before ultimately being let out on house arrest later in the summer. As of this morning, Julie is no longer required to wear the court issued GPS tracking device that has been on her ankle since the beginning of her home confinement.
From the start, Julie’s prosecution has been utterly political, and multiple police departments have collaborated with one another to brutalize and repress her. In December of 2024, Julie was violently beaten to the point of death by Portland Police officers Max Freund and Henry Vasend — who beat her so viciously that she had to be revived at the hospital. Julie was ultimately the one charged for the incident and was forced to navigate court in Multnomah County for the better half of nine months without being appointed a public defender. Despite the fact that Julie’s violent assault was a well documented incident that circulated across social media, PPB Chief Bob Day denied any knowledge of wrongdoing by his officers after being confronted about it in public by members of the community. Either violent assaults against trans women are so common that Bob Day just can’t keep track of them anymore, or he is just utterly uninterested in addressing the corruption of his officers and cares exclusively about the public image of the bureau. It’s probably a combination of both.
At her sentencing hearing, Julie was appointed 13 points on the court’s sentencing table. The federal sentencing guidelines use a point based system to determine sentences based on two main factors: the offense level of the crime and the criminal history of the defendant. Each offense is assigned a level from 1 to 43 and prior convictions are scored to categorize the defendant. It is the mix of both of these factors on the sentencing table that provides the judge with a recommended range of imprisonment. Julie was given a range of 12-28 months, with the judge ultimately sentencing her to time served with 3 years of supervised release.
The most notable portion of the sentencing hearing was the specific contentions raised regarding the updated Presentence Report (PRS) that was submitted to the court just a few days before Julie’s sentencing hearing and contained new proposed conditions of her release. A PRS is prepared by the U.S. Probation Officer and provides detailed information about a defendant’s specific background and circumstances, and it is used as an important reference document by the judge before imposing the final sentence for a defendant.
In the amended PRS, the government moved to request even more repressive conditions on an already lengthy list of supervision restrictions. The government argued that Julie should not be allowed to post anything relating to immigration and law enforcement online, and that she must surrender any devices she uses for the government to install tracking software onto them. They also made note that Julie should be barred from using any and all forms of encrypted messaging, and that those she has regular contact with should be made aware that their devices may also be subject to search if there is reason to believe Julie accessed them in any way.
Julie’s attorney rightfully argued that these restrictions were a direct violation of his client’s constitutional rights, and a judge ultimately dismissed them altogether, after a poor articulation from the prosecutor on why they were justified conditions. The government argued that Julie was not being targeted for her political values, and that they did not believe she was a “radical anarchist out to overthrow the government.” They argued that Julie was clearly just a very mentally ill individual and needed to be prevented from accessing radicalizing media that was making her have the grand delusions that there needed to be a revolution. Had the state thought Julie was indeed “an anarchist,” the prosecutor argued that they would have “sought out the max.”
Julie spoke out in court to contest this false characterization of her politics as being symptoms of episodes of psychosis or due to her failing mental health, arguing that anyone would be traumatized after experiencing the violence that she has at the hands of the police, but her mental health is not what made her believe that she needed to speak out against the actions the government was taking that she did not morally agree with. The state’s attempts to cast her as “mentally ill” directly showcased the ways in which it weaponizes mental health as a means to pacify political dissent in those who express it boldly. To them, being a radical is seen as a mental health deficiency, and in their opinion, it is only able to be remedied with the poisonous medicine of the criminal justice system.
While the court shot down the additional restrictions that the government attempted to impose, it is important to note that Julie has already been repressed heavily throughout the entire process leading up to sentencing. Months prior, the magistrate judge ruled on the case that Julie could not discuss the details of her case with others, and she was not allowed to post anything online regarding law enforcement or ICE. This gag order was handed down after the state initially argued that Julie should be allowed to have no social media whatsoever, claiming that social media was used to radicalize militants against the government.
Although the court did not impose the supplemental restrictions suggested for Julie in the amended PRS at her sentencing hearing, the court did meet some of the direct requests made by probation officers — specifically requesting that Julie be forced to attend meetings with the office with no support from her community, and that Julie is not to film any matters relating to visits from the Office of Probation and Pre-Trial Services. The court ruled that if Julie had friends or family over in her apartment during a surprise visit, she is required to make them leave and to complete the duration of the visit entirely by herself. This restriction was placed out of the interest of “officer safety,” without the consideration of what this means for a victim of violent police brutality, who has already been viciously beaten in previous check-ins with her pre-trial officer. Why is the court so afraid of someone being witness to Julie’s interaction with federal officers?
On totally random and completely unrelated note, a criminal defense attorney had his briefcase seized by the feds after leaving the federal courthouse a few days ago. That attorney is one of Julie Winters’ lawyers on this case.
Julie has been without employment for months, and although she is back at home and finally off of house arrest, the next three years are still long ahead of her. Julie needs support from her community as she navigates being under federal supervision for the next 36 months, with the risk of re-arrest looming over her in the event of any violations of her probation. Since her arrest, Julie has been relentlessly doxxed by fascists such as Andy Ngo, who have labeled her “trantifa,” and she has been displaced from her home.
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