Judge grants Rep. Katie Porter a five-year restraining order against ex-boyfriend
- An Orange County judge granted Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine) a five-year restraining order against her former romantic partner, saying that the hundreds of messages he had sent her constituted domestic abuse.
- Porter told the court Tuesday that her ex had repeatedly violated the temporary restraining order she secured against him last month.
An Orange County judge on Tuesday barred a former boyfriend of U.S. Rep. Katie Porter from contacting her or her children for the next five years and said he had committed domestic abuse by sending the congresswoman hundreds of threatening and harassing messages.
Superior Court Judge Elia Naqvi said her restraining order will bar 55-year-old Julian Willis from contacting Porter or her family. The order will also prohibit Willis from discussing Porter with nine of her current and former colleagues, including employees in her congressional office.
Porter, an Irvine Democrat who is leaving Congress next month, obtained a temporary restraining order against Willis last month.
She said in court filings that Willis, her former boyfriend of a decade, began bombarding her and her loved ones with messages that constituted “persistent abuse and harassment” after she asked him to move out of her Irvine home in August.
Porter said Willis sent more than 1,000 text messages and emails, including texting her 82 times in one 24-hour period in September, and 55 times on Nov. 12 before she blocked his number. The messages arrived so frequently that Porter said she feared for her safety and her emotional well-being.
Porter said Willis had been hospitalized twice since late 2022 on involuntary psychiatric holds and had a history of abusing prescription painkillers and other drugs.
A blunt demeanor, professorial intellect and sometimes polarizing ways have defined her three terms as an outspoken member of Congress from a competitive Orange County district.
On Tuesday, Porter waited in an Orange courtroom for nearly three hours as the judge worked through a docket of more than a dozen domestic violence cases.
When Porter’s case was called, the courtroom was empty except for two reporters. Porter sat next to her attorney with her hands folded in her lap, speaking only when the judge asked her a direct question.
Porter said that she and Willis had dated for a decade and that he had never physically abused her.
Porter also said Willis had repeatedly violated the November restraining order by continuing to email her and her colleagues and staff.
Porter’s attorney, Gerald Singleton, read a portion of an email that he received from Willis that said: “Please inform the court that I violated the terms of your partially approved, out-of-state restraining order.”
Singleton said it was a “great concern” that Willis had told Porter and law enforcement in New Jersey, where he is now living, that the restraining order didn’t apply to him.
Restraining orders can last up to five years in California. Naqvi said a five-year order was justified because the couple had been together for a decade and because it was “very concerning” that Willis had repeatedly violated the court order.
Porter declined to comment after the hearing.
Porter is leaving the House of Representatives in January after losing in California’s U.S. Senate primary in March. She has been discussed as a front-runner in the 2026 governor’s race in California after Gov. Gavin Newsom is forced out by term limits, but has not said whether she will run.
The wide-open race to succeed Gavin Newsom as California governor has already attracted a large and diverse field of candidates.
Willis did not appear in court Tuesday and has not submitted a formal response to Porter’s allegations. He did not respond to a request seeking comment Tuesday.
He previously told The Times that he did not have a lawyer and that the “universe will deliver me the right attorney when it’s time.”
Porter’s court filings included 22 pages of emails, text messages and other communications among Porter, family members and colleagues who had received messages from Willis.
The filing also included messages between Porter and Willis’ siblings as they discussed trying to help him during his psychiatric holds and while he was staying in a sober-living facility.
In one email that Willis sent to Singleton in late November, Willis said he had visited Porter’s oldest son at college out of state and told him that he would “bring the hammer down on Katie and smash her and her life into a million pieces.”
He told Porter’s attorney: “That’s what I am doing — and now you are next on my list, you piece of garbage.”
In another email in the filing, Willis told Singleton he would file a complaint with child protective services about Porter, who has a 12-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old son.
Willis previously made the news in 2021, when he was arrested after a fight that broke out during a Porter town hall meeting at a park in Irvine.
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