Katie Porter gets temporary restraining order against ex-boyfriend

U.S. Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine) secured a short lived restraining order Tuesday towards a former boyfriend, saying in dozens of pages of court docket filings that he had bombarded her, in addition to her household and colleagues, with a whole bunch of messages that she described as “persistent abuse and harassment.”

Porter, 50, alleged in a submitting with Orange County Superior Court docket that her ex-boyfriend Julian Willis, 55, was contacting her and her household with such frequency that she had a “important worry” for her “private security and emotional well-being.”

Decide Stephen T. Hicklin signed a restraining order Tuesday barring Willis from speaking with Porter and her kids till a mid-December court docket listening to. He additionally barred Willis from speaking about Porter together with her present and former colleagues.

Within the court docket submitting, Porter stated that Willis had been hospitalized twice since late 2022 on involuntary psychiatric holds and had a historical past of abusing prescription painkillers and different medicine.

She stated in a press release to The Occasions that Willis’ psychological well being and struggles with dependancy appeared to have gotten worse since she requested him in August to maneuver out of her Irvine residence. She stated she sought the court docket order after his threats to her household and colleagues “escalated in each their frequency and depth.”

“I sincerely hope he will get the assistance he wants,” Porter stated.

Willis declined to remark. He can have a chance to file a authorized response to the momentary restraining order and problem Porter’s allegations.

Porter is leaving the Home of Representatives in January after dropping in California’s U.S. Senate major in March. She has been mentioned as a front-runner within the 2026 governor’s race in California after Gov. Gavin Newsom is termed out, however has not stated whether or not she is going to launch a marketing campaign.

The 53-page court docket submitting, first reported by Politico, included 22 pages of emails, textual content messages and different communications amongst Porter, members of the family and colleagues who had acquired messages from Willis, in addition to messages that Willis despatched to Porter’s lawyer and to her political mentor Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

The submitting additionally included messages between herself and Willis’ siblings as they mentioned making an attempt to assist him throughout his psychiatric holds and whereas he was staying in a sober-living facility.

Porter stated that since she ordered Willis to maneuver out, he had despatched her greater than 1,000 textual content messages and emails, together with texting her 82 occasions in a single 24-hour interval in September, and 55 occasions on Nov. 12 earlier than she blocked his quantity.

Porter stated within the submitting that her ex-boyfriend had “already contacted a minimum of three reporters to disseminate false and damaging data” about her and her kids, which she stated “poses a severe danger to [her] profession and private fame.”

The submitting contains an e-mail that Porter stated Willis despatched to her lawyer late Monday, through which Willis stated he had visited Porter’s son in school in Iowa and informed him that he would “deliver the hammer down on Katie and smash her and her life into 1,000,000 items.”

One other screenshot reveals Willis telling Porter’s lawyer that he would file a grievance about Porter, who has kids ages 12 and 16, with little one protecting providers.

One among Porter’s congressional workers members acquired a textual content message from Willis saying he would “punish the f—” out of him if he didn’t comply with “cooperate” with a New York Occasions reporter and Willis’ attorneys, based on a screenshot included within the court docket doc.

Willis beforehand made the information in 2021, when he was arrested after a struggle that broke out at a Porter city corridor at a park in Irvine.

Occasions workers author Christopher Goffard contributed to this report.