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.
I guess tarantulas aren’t cute enough to warrant an animal cruelty charge :(
if it was a venomous spider that can seriously harm people, it wouldve assault with a weapon.
It’s a tarantula. They’re like 8 legged dogs. They want nothing more than to eat small game and cuddle up somewhere warm and safe. As a kid in a day program at a zoo, the handlers would sometimes let us hold them.
But it was a tarantula.