Marisa Simonetti, 32, was convicted of harassing and a**aulting her tenant by throwing a tarantula down the stairs to the rented unit on Friday, March 13.
Simonetti, notably, was running for a seat on the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners when the incident occurred.
She is now running for the US Senate independently.
The offender admitted in an interview that she got the idea of using the spider to force her tenant out from a popular Christmas movie.
Threatening with a tarantula was not the only method Simonetti employed
Image credits: Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office
A criminal complaint reviewed by news outlets such as The Star Tribune, Eden Prairie, and KARE 11 names Jacklyn Vasquez as the tenant living in Simonetti’s Edina basement.
Vasquez was a law student, preparing for her bar exam to become an attorney, and rented the space via Airbnb.
Shortly after moving in in June 2024, she asked Simonetti for permission to hire a pest control company to combat spiders in the unit, the complaint says.
This gave rise to tensions between the two.
On June 21, 2024, Vasquez called 911 several times, first when Simonetti began banging pots and pans together while she was trying to study, and then when she shut off the home’s internet service.
Vasquez again called the police, alleging that Simonetti and a man, identified in the complaint as Michael Held, entered the basement unit by taking the door apart.
Saying she felt “scared,” Vasquez hid in the room but left her laptop at the bottom of the stairs to record what was happening.
In a video shown on KARE 11, the sounds of pots and pans banging and a woman yelling “Hallelujah” can be heard.
Soon after, a torrent of small balls and other items can be seen cascading down the stairs before Simonetti appears in the frame, yelling “spider infestation!”
She then goes on to dump the tarantula in question alongside dirt.
Officers, upon arrival at the scene, found “pins, tacks, nails, and a live tarantula which was moving around,” the complaint says.
Simonetti was arrested at around 4:55 pm on charges of fifth-degree a**ault and domestic a**ault, per Fox 9.
She represented herself in the three-day-long trial at Hennepin County District Court last week, which ended with the jury finding her guilty of gross misdemeanor harassment, misdemeanor domestic a**ault, and disorderly conduct.
Simonetti’s use of a tarantula was influenced by the movie Home Alone
Speaking to NBC News in 2024, Simonetti detailed that she began getting irked by Vasquez two weeks after she moved in because she would speak loudly on the phone late at night.
“I’m just sitting up there… thinking this is not going to go well,” she shared with the outlet at the time.
Simonetti detailed in her interview that she bought the tarantula from a pet store after realizing Vasquez “had no intention of leaving.”
Telling NBC News that she watched the movie Home Alone, which featured a sequence of Macaulay Culkin taking revenge on two burglars with a series of pranks — including releasing a tarantula on them — while growing up, Simonetti said, “If I’m scared or hurt, I try to make jokes.”
In this case, she “was so scared” about escalating tensions with her renter.
“And so yeah, I brought the spider,” she noted.
Following her conviction, Simonetti told the Star Tribune that she lost only because she didn’t fully understand court procedures.
“I was just outplayed. That’s all,” she remarked.
Netizens have reacted to Simonetti’s tactic and her legal fate with both amusement and relief
“Well, that’s creative,” one said, while another asked, “Is the spider okay?”
“Poor tarantula. It was just minding its business,” echoed a third
“She should have been charged with animal cruelty,” a fourth commented, prompting a fifth to say, “lol she’s crazy.”
This first video shows Marisa Simonetti tossing the tarantula down the stairs toward Jackie Vasquez, who was on the phone with the dispatcher at the time. pic.twitter.com/psFOMSovX3
— Lou Raguse (@LouNewsMan) June 25, 2024
“Just like ICE using ‘less than lethal’ weapons,” pointed out the next.
“Glad she was found guilty,” commented someone else, and another expressed, “Good to know there still is some common sense left in the Minnesota justice system.”
Simonetti will be handed her sentence on May 1.
“The entitlement of politicians before they even get in office is insane,” a social media user expressed
