Milwaukee punk singer accused of threatening pregnant ex-girlfriend with knife may get probation

The 32-year-old former frontman of a popular Milwaukee punk band chased his pregnant ex-girlfriend with a knife, threatening to cut the child from her womb if she wouldn’t be with him, prosecutors say.

Julian Sotolongo, also known as Jules Frank and former guitarist for The Pukes, has prior felony convictions in Miami. The woman he tried to stab had called Milwaukee police at least twice before to report his abusive behavior.

But prosecutors charged Sotolongo with only misdemeanors in the attempted stabbing and plan to recommend two years of probation when he is sentenced

Jan. 19.

In exchange for Sotolongo’s guilty plea to one count, the prosecutor also will recommend a stayed jail sentence of nine months, which means Sotolongo won’t spend any time behind bars unless he does not comply with the rules of his supervision. The other charge will be dropped.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Kent Lovern would not explain the reasons for the deal.

“Because the case is still pending, our public statements about the case have been and must continue to be made on the record in court,” he said in an email to a reporter declining an interview request.

Sotolongo and his attorney, Justin Singleton, also declined to be interviewed.

The woman he attacked, Jessica Jurick, said the penalty isn’t enough for what he put her through.

“He has zero consequences,” she said in an interview.

Jurick, 29, said she has chosen to speak out to warn others about Sotolongo and explain her frustration with the criminal justice system. Her decision comes amid the broader #metoo movement in which women are publicly sharing their experiences of sexual assault and harassment.

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She is not the first woman to issue a public warning about him.

'I was just so shocked'

Jurick met Sotolongo in April 2015, shortly after he moved to Milwaukee from Miami. Three months later, they moved in together.

“Everything felt really great,” she said.

It didn’t last. Eleven months later, she suspected Sotolongo was cheating. When she confronted him, he moved out.

He soon came back, but their attempts to work it out ended in arguments. He often screamed at her nose-to-nose, Jurick said. She didn’t tell anyone about the verbal abuse.

“He would only do it at home,” she said. “There was a facade and he was pretty well-liked as a musician. I didn’t think people would believe me.”

That summer, the two had another fight. Sotolongo punched holes in her apartment wall and threw trash everywhere, she said.

“I was just so shocked, I just stood there,” she said. “But it didn’t seem bad enough to call the police.”

In August 2016, after another breakup, Jurick says Sotolongo forced his way into her house and chased her with a knife, saying “you wanted this.” After she calmed him down, he was “insistent on sex” and assaulted her, she said.

She said she cried the whole time.

Eight months later, she reported the sexual assault to Milwaukee police.

Calls to police

From August 2016 through April 2017, the couple continued to have an on-again, off-again relationship that Jurick says was marred by physical abuse.

“I made multiple attempts to leave,” Jurick said. “But when I would try, he would break into my home, confront me in public and bombard me with messages.”

“I didn’t think it was possible to leave without him hurting me,” she said.

In the time between the sexual assault and the time Jurick reported it, she called Milwaukee police in fear of Sotolongo on two other occasions.

In January 2017, she hid in her bathroom and called 911 to report someone — she believed it was Sotolongo — breaking into her house through her second-story porch.

Four months later, she called again to report Sotolongo was sending her Facebook messages saying he was at her home and could see her.

She told 911 operators he had threatened to burn down her house 30 minutes earlier and had been violent to her in the past, according to dispatch records.

She hid in the basement. When she realized Sotolongo was not in her house, she told the dispatcher she no longer needed police.

Milwaukee police did not file incident reports in either case and did not investigate Sotolongo’s threats.

A police spokesman said that in the January incident, no suspects were found and no one had gotten into Jurick’s home. In April, she canceled the request for a police response before officers arrived.

Also in April, Jurick read a post on social media warning women about Sotolongo.

A prominent woman in the punk community shared a friend’s experience with Sotolongo on Facebook. The post, which the victim gave permission for, described an abusive relationship and said Sotolongo was “dangerous.”

The thread quickly attracted comments. Most were supportive. But a few attacked the woman’s character, a frequent occurrence when women speak out about sexual harassment and assault.

Reading the post prompted Jurick to report the sexual assault to Milwaukee police. Records show prosecutors declined to issue charges.

A week later, she learned she was pregnant with Sotolongo’s child.

She agreed to keep him informed about her pregnancy but cut off all other contact with him.

A witness intervenes

On Sept. 10, 2017, Jurick left a morning meeting in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood.

Sotolongo was waiting.

Police and court records describe what happened next:

Jurick got in her car and tried to drive away but mistakenly turned down a dead-end alley. Sotolongo parked behind her and got out of his car. He yanked open her unlocked door and punched her in the face.

He pulled a switchblade and held it near her stomach, threatening to cut the baby out.

A 45-year-old man inside a nearby house heard yelling and went outside. He told Sotolongo to leave Jurick alone or he would call the police.

Sotolongo told him to stay out of it and began pulling Jurick toward the car, saying “you’re coming with me.”

Jurick was crying and refusing to walk, according to the witness. The man said he saw Sotolongo lunge at the woman with a knife and yelled for Sotolongo to stop.

Realizing he was being watched, Sotolongo retreated to his own car. The witness reported hearing him yell: “Don’t go home or I will kill you.”

When police interviewed Sotolongo later that day, he denied any violence and said the two had agreed to get coffee and talk about the baby.

The next day, he was charged with two misdemeanors: battery and disorderly conduct by use of a dangerous weapon, both with domestic abuse enhancers. The combined maximum possible penalty for the charges is one year in jail.

As part of the agreement with prosecutors, Sotolongo pleaded guilty to the disorderly conduct charge Dec. 20.

Jurick has since moved out of state and plans to submit a written victim-witness statement instead of appearing in person.

“I want more than anything for women to come forward and share their stories without fear of repercussion and to know that they will be believed and that the system will keep them safe,” she said in an interview.

“Because right now, the system doesn’t.”

The Sojourner Family Peace Center in Milwaukee operates a 24-hour confidential hotline at (414) 933-2722. The National Domestic Violence Hotline can be reached at (800) 799-7233.