Lucy Fowlkes Arrested Yesterday and Charged with Hindering Prosecution of Terrorism in What Supporters Say is an Effort to Pressure Her to Cooperate With the State
January 6, 2026
CLEBURNE, TX – Police arrested Lucy Fowlkes at her family home in Weatherford, TX, yesterday. They took her into custody at Johnson County Jail. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation accompanied local police during the arrest on Monday evening, though she was charged under state, not federal law. Johnson County prosecutors have charged Fowlkes with Hindering the Prosecution of Terrorism and have set bond at $5 million. Similar to Daniel Estrada Sanchez, Janette Goering, and Dario Sanchez, Fowlkes is not known to have participated in the July 4, 2025 protest at the Prairieland ICE Detention Center.
Lucy Fowlkes faces charges in another ongoing case stemming from an incident at a drag brunch in 2023, where she was charged alongside Chris Guillot and Meghan Grant. In that case, authorities allege that Fowlkes and others unlawfully defended the family event from violent antagonists.
Supporters of Ms. Fowlkes say in the weeks prior to her arrest she had been approached by law enforcement encouraging her to engage in an interview regarding the July 4th protest. “The extension of this charge, ‘hindering the prosecution of terrorism’, to more and more defendants is increasingly absurd. I can only assume that this is some sort of wildly unacceptable intimidation tactic,” said Lydia Koza, friend of the defendant.
Fowlkes’s arrest and apparent intimidation by Johnson County officials comes just four months after Johnson County Sheriff Adam King was arrested and charged with intimidating a witness, sexual harassment, and perjury. Despite violating his bond conditions numerous times, Sheriff King remains in his position while his criminal case is ongoing.
The allegations against Fowlkes remain unknown, causing multiple friends and acquaintances to express confusion when told of her arrest. “This is really shocking,” said Shelby Donahue, a friend of the accused. “Lucy has been keeping to herself, and been focused on her case this whole time,” she continued. “I don’t see how she could be involved in any of this. It doesn’t seem possible.” Others expressed sorrow at her incarceration.
“She’s an incredibly funny and kind person, and it truly breaks my heart to see her harassed and jailed like this,” says Stephanie Shriver, a friend of Ms. Fowlkes. “The state is trying to scare her into saying things that aren’t true. That has to be illegal.”
The sprawling Prairieland case is significant in a nationwide landscape of increased protest activity against ICE and its immigration raids. Experts believes the outcome of this case should be concerning to those exercising their rights. “Millions of people across the country are joining protests against injustices happening around us,” said Xavier T. de Janon, Director of Mass Defense at the National Lawyers Guild. “If the federal government can snatch protesters for months, with no quick recourse, then we are all in danger.”
The Prairieland cases, involving both state and federal charges, stem from a noise demonstration in solidarity with detainees at the Prairieland ICE Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, on July 4, 2025. After the protest, an officer with the Alvarado Police Department allegedly became involved in an exchange of gunfire soon after arrival. The officer allegedly sustained minor injuries, and was reportedly released from the hospital shortly afterwards. Authorities have still not provided hospital records to justify these claims, six months later. Alvarado police arrested ten people in the area, and a manhunt ensued in the subsequent days for another defendant. Eight more defendants were arrested in the days and weeks following the protest.
Prejudicial and sweeping statements related to these cases have been made repeatedly by officials at the highest levels of government, polluting the perceptions of the public from which the jury will be drawn and undermining the defendants’ ability to get a fair trial. The Trump administration has publicly claimed that the Prairieland case is the first legal case against “Antifa,” widely considered to be an informal set of anti-authoritarian beliefs, but recently designated as a domestic terrorist organization. On September 25, the White House released the National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 (NSPM-7), which ordered all federal law enforcement agencies to prioritize combating Antifa as a domestic terrorism threat. FBI director Kash Patel has called the defendants “Antifa-aligned anarchist violent extremists,” sharing Fox News coverage of the case on X.
For more information on the Prairieland cases and the DFW Support Committee:
prairielanddefendants.com