Independent Minnesota US Senate candidate Marisa Simonetti, 32, has been sentenced to three months in the Hennepin County workhouse after throwing a live tarantula onto the staircase leading to her tenant’s living space in Edina. She was convicted of gross misdemeanour harassment and misdemeanour domestic assault and will serve her 90-day sentence on school and work release. The court also ordered her to serve two years of probation and submit a written apology to the victim.
Simonetti’s sentence comes as she campaigns for a seat in the US Senate, hoping to replace Tina Smith in the November 2026 Minnesota election. Her candidacy has drawn further attention after a video she posted of herself confronting a Girl Scout and the child’s mother over selling cookies without a permit went viral, putting her own conduct under public scrutiny.
Poor Tarantula.
I wonder why she’s running as an independent. Couldn’t be more qualified to be a Republican.
Although she initially launched her political career as a Republican and lost two Hennepin County Board races in 2024, the local 3rd Congressional District GOP committee withdrew its endorsement following her 2024 arrest, stating she ‘does not reflect our values’.
The GOP kicked her out for bad behavior. She’s too much for the addicts and pedophile warmongers.
Sounds like a charmer…
The bodycam footage of the incident is wild. She’s a complete and total piece of shit.
She was convicted of gross misdemeanour harassment and misdemeanour domestic assault
I guess tarantulas aren’t cute enough to warrant an animal cruelty charge :(
Here is another article on this that I found a little bit clearer in terms of what happened. So basically her tenant asked her to fulfill a basic responsibility that landlords are supposed to handle and she had an absolute fucking meltdown? Honestly the tarantula is the tamest part of it. I hope the tarantula is okay and also that the tenant is okay, not because the tarantula was a real danger but because of every other fucking thing this woman did. Good lord.
This is so much worse than “neighbor”.
Also, how fun:
Simonetti “intercepted” groceries ordered by the individual and refused to return them until officers told her to do so
Attempted murder… yikes
From what i saw of her cop-slop episode it wasn’t even her property. She was illegally subletting it.
Both by the terms of her rental contract and that short term lets were illegal in the city.
Unfortunately I doubt it is. Tarantulas are surprisingly fragile; a throw like that would most likely kill one :(
also blared loud Christian music
Simonetti, a local real estate businesswoman who runs a house-buying firm
Jfc this article just gets worse and worse
AI slop thumbnail though
She’s perfect for US Senate except for being about 50 years too young.
Perfect for the next 50 years. They’re not elected old, they just stay in office till they die, because of cronyism and corruption.
Really not fair to the tarantula, who asked for none of this.
Tarantula are wildly intelligent. Like, smart dog intelligent.
This is a 100% lie and literally anyone here with a single minute to spare could fact check and learn they aren’t very intelligent at all. Nowhere remotely close to a dog or cat, and aren’t even known to be the smartest types of spiders. It’s kind of sad that 28 people straight just blindly up voted this comment without a single one of them knowing it wasn’t true and didn’t bother to check.
They’re super cool, but they’re still dumb.
Not as dumb as some dogs.
Like, “sit”, “stay”, and “fetch me a cigarette”?! I want video of this
They aren’t. They’re pretty dumb. Way dumber than a dog or cat. Learning you aren’t a threat to them is about as advanced as a tarantula can get. They aren’t even the smartest spiders.
Tarantula are wildly intelligent. Like, smart dog intelligent.
Yeah I’m gonna go ahead and call bullshit on that bullshit. There is zero chance of that being true.
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I don’t find tarantulas yucky and have had one as a pet.
They aren’t smart. They aren’t like dogs. You can’t teach them anything. The most you can get out of them is that they will learn you’re not gonna squish or eat them and be cool with you.
You can look this up “on the internet”. They aren’t even as smart as jumping spiders.
So yeah. He right on calling bullshit. Because it is bullshit.
Yeah, jumping spiders is where it’s at when it comes to intelligence in spiders, and even then only in highly specific ways (i.e., hunting, and calculating jumps), and a significant portion of their apparent intelligence is just them having very good eyesight for a spider; dogs, cats, birds, rats, and even probably bees are still much more intelligent than them.
Tarantulas on the other hand aren’t much smarter than your average politician or CEO.
There is zero chance a spider is as smart as even the most mediocre dog. Stop it.
I was wondering where the animal abuse charges were in all this.
How the heck did you come up with that?
Hey I love tarantulas (we keep over 60 of them currently) and think they deserve our appreciation and respect. However there isn’t any evidence that they are particularly intelligent, and certainly no indication that they are “smart dog intelligent.”
One could make an argument for jumping spiders tho: https://youtu.be/_QF6kaOAuYg
Showed the headline to a friend and asked him what he thought she did for a living.
‘Realtor’ was his first guess.
Wow, attacking girl scouts AND THEN POSTING THE VIDEO YOURSELF. Completely lost the plot.
And she’s a 32 year old landlord too.
She was illegally subletting the basement, too. There was an ordinance against hosting temp rentals like AirBnB, iirc.
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Wait…does the Girl Scout organization not secure legal clearance at all for its scouts to sell? Or is she just a complete moron?
You know, I think headlines like these might be getting to the point where they don’t even qualify as onion-like. The Onion headlines are at least clever jokes that make sense when you think about them. This is more like someone playing “yes and” with a bunch of crazy people.
That poor spider.
Her candidacy has drawn further attention after a video she posted of herself confronting a Girl Scout and the child’s mother over selling cookies without a permit went viral, putting her own conduct under public scrutiny.
The tarantula thing wasn’t enough?
