Along came a spider – among other things – and frightened a tenant away

Marisa Simonetti, running for the District 6 Hennepin County commissioner seat in the Nov. 5 election, faces a fifth-degree assault charge after a heated confrontation with her Airbnb guest at her Edina residence on June 21.

She is accused of tossing a large spider (maybe a tarantula), some toys, and other items down a flight of stairs in the general direction of another woman who had been renting part of the house from Simonetti through Airbnb. The charge involves causing someone to fear bodily harm and does not require physical contact or injury. Simonetti denies the accusations, calling the tenant, Jacklyn Vasquez, a “squatter.” Vasquez disputes this, asserting that she rented a room through Airbnb and that her presence in the house was legitimate under this agreement.

Simonetti’s unconventional eviction methods, including releasing a live spider down the stairs, have attracted significant media attention.

“People are calling me the tarantula tosser,” Simonetti said. “What’s funny is how gently I tossed it in the video. It wasn’t an aggressive thing; it was the most gentle little roll. That speaks to my presence of mind in the moment. I think someone who is truly out of control would have acted differently. I never even went down the steps. I did not physically see her that day on Friday.

“So, I didn’t touch anybody,” she added. “I didn’t put my hands on anybody. You can literally hear her start laughing at the end of one video as I’m up there cheering and singing, ‘Thank you, Jesus.'”

Despite the charge, Simonetti, 30, plans to continue her campaign against incumbent Heather Edelson in the Nov. 5 general election. District 6, represented by Edelson and contested by Simonetti, includes 66 precincts, six of which are in northern Eden Prairie (precincts 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, and 8).

Edelson defeated Simonetti in a special election last month to fill the final months of the District 6 vacancy left by Chris LaTondresse’s resignation. Simonetti was the runner-up to Edelson among six candidates in the April primary, with the top two vote-getters moving on to the May 14 special election. She describes herself on her website as a “businesswoman who owns rental property (not a Realtor), mother, and the only conservative candidate in this race.”

Since the incident, much has been unearthed from Simonetti’s past. On Wednesday, Alpha News, a conservative news website, posted a statement from Simonetti on social media after it asked her for comment on allegations that she was a paid escort. In her statement, Simonetti addressed the claims but did not directly deny them.

When asked for clarification, Simonetti responded to Eden Prairie Local News (EPLN) via text on Thursday, “Explicitly: My son and I lived with domestic violence for many years. Sometimes you have only challenging choices in front of you and have to pick your poison … or spider.”

Simonetti said the domestic violence incidents occurred in Plymouth. She never pressed charges because “she loved him,” but noted that several police reports were filed.

In recent days, Simonetti has received extensive local and national publicity. When asked if that has helped or hurt her candidacy and whether she remains committed to running, she said she is receiving many supportive messages via text, email, and her social media accounts from others who, she says, understand “that life is messy.” She says for every “hater,” there are at least two supporters.

“All my life circumstances help, and never harm me, in the long run. My run for Hennepin County Commissioner in District 6 will continue,” Simonetti said.

According to the county, candidates can suspend their campaigns after the June 6 withdrawal deadline. However, this will not affect the ballot; the candidate’s name will still appear in November.

Simonetti spent last weekend in Hennepin County Jail and was released on Monday. Her conditional release order stated that the “parties live in the same house, so must stay away from each other while living at the same property.” However, Vasquez has since moved out.

Her pretrial hearing is scheduled for July 18 in the Hennepin County Ridgedale Regional Center in Minnetonka.

A dispute over tenancy

Earlier this month, Simonetti rented part of her five-bedroom Edina home to Vasquez, a licensed attorney in Minnesota studying for the California bar exam, through Airbnb. Simonetti lived upstairs, while Vasquez stayed on the lower level. Both women said the arrangement started amicably.

“It’s just me and my son,” Simonetti said, acknowledging that she rents the house. “We stayed in the neighborhood because we love our neighbors so much, and I wanted to maintain the stability of my son in the same school district, same school bus, you know, the same friendly faces, all of that. So, we moved in here on Jan. 1 of this year from two streets over, and I’m a single mom. It’s kinda lonely in here. So I thought, you know what, I’ll have this girl come stay with me for the summer.”

However, tensions arose a couple of weeks into the arrangement.

And now, the back and forth between the women has become difficult to sort out. Police became involved.

“The whole debacle started because there was a spider infestation in the basement,” Vasquez said.

“It lasted about two weeks before she started sending me long, multiple-paragraph texts, saying crazy things,” Simonetti said, among some of her complaints.

The conflict escalates

The conflict peaked on June 21 when Vasquez began recording the dispute on her laptop. In the 18-minute video, the laptop’s camera is pointed up at the stairs.

Simonetti is seen tossing a large spider down the stairs while other items, like toys and what Vasquez described as thumbtacks, are tossed as well. Simonetti can be heard referring to the spider in the video as a tarantula, but she later admitted she wasn’t sure what type it was. Music and occasional shouting coming from upstairs are audible in the background.

According to the Edina arrest report, police were called when Vasquez stated her landlady was trying to trespass into her section of the home. At the end of the video, police are seen in the stairway, ensuring the spider is under the container.

Michael Charles Held, a 69-year-old St. Louis Park man, was arrested along with Simonetti. Held was also charged with misdemeanor assault. Simonetti said Held was instrumental in helping her put out signs during the special election. He had randomly stopped at the house that day, and she said he didn’t do anything and wasn’t involved. He is seen on the video and mentions the tarantula.

Simonetti’s justification

Simonetti defended her actions as an attempt to protect her 6-year-old son from what she described as Vasquez’s behavior. “First, it was just messages, then it was yelling on the phone downstairs,” Simonetti said. “Then she was right next to my bedroom calling me names. When she smashed my arm in the door, I thought, ‘What is my son coming home to?'”

Simonetti decided Vasquez needed to leave. “I came up with a little plan,” she said. “I thought people leave crazy people alone, and sure enough, she was gone. I came home, and she was gone.”

Asked how the spider came to be involved, Simonetti cited the movie “Home Alone” as inspiration. She has been posting a picture from the movie on social media, which shows actor Daniel Stern with a tarantula on his face.

“I was like, I’ve got to secure my house against these home invaders,” she said. “I felt like I was a little mama, and my poor kid was coming home to a home invader. That’s how I felt, and I was worried my kid was going to get hurt.”

For her son’s sake, Simonetti says she doesn’t allow any “drama” in her home.

“We don’t allow yelling, name-calling, or hitting,” Simonetti said. “My past is littered with some drama because I’ve seen some things, but I’ve worked really hard to create a safe, stable environment. It’s very important to me to keep a secure, positive energy here.”

When asked if she got the spider precisely for that purpose, Simonetti responded, “Well, that’s a good question. I don’t know if we could characterize it as that, but I did turn on the praise and worship music, which I think is a funny juxtaposition.”

Simonetti explained why she is continuing her political campaign. “I’m moving forward because she tried to use the law to threaten me,” Simonetti said. “I don’t back down from threats. Eventually, I returned to a safe and secure home. I may be a little unconventional in my ways, but at the end of the day, it’s both funny and effective. If there’s a home invader, no one would suggest inviting them up for tea and crumpets.”

On Tuesday, Simonetti emailed her followers and potential donors, presenting her version of events in a message titled “The Tarantula Tosser.”

Tenant’s account

Vasquez’s account is quite different from Simonetti’s.

She described Simonetti’s behavior as erratic and deliberately frightening. Vasquez explained that the door to her basement was unlocked, so she tried to secure it.

“When I started to hear metal and wood noises, like something being disassembled, I knew they were about to come in, and who knows what they had on them,” she said. “I did not realize it was going to be a spider. My mind never went there.”

Regarding the allegation that she earlier smashed Simonetti’s arm with a door, Vasquez explained, “I closed the door, and she was standing close to it. How could I use the door as a weapon? I didn’t throw the door at her. She was standing next to it, and my intention was to close the door and protect myself. So, physical assault requires intent to cause contact with the body of another. I had no intention to cause contact with her body. My intention was to close the door. She was standing next to it, and I didn’t realize she was that close. That’s not physical assault.”

She admits that she swore at Simonetti. “That’s not a crime, last I checked,” she said. “If someone is antagonized and responds angrily because their door is being banged down, I don’t think that’s a crime.”

After reviewing the video she recorded on her laptop, Vasquez said she was horrified.

“It was an eerie feeling. It was disturbing,” Vasquez said. “This is not a person who operates within the norm of human decency. It was scary, and I knew I needed to leave.”

While Simonetti was in jail, Vasquez moved out.

Vasquez accused Simonetti of falsely claiming that she was a squatter, someone who unlawfully occupies a property without the owner’s permission.

Reiterating that her presence in the house was legitimate through an Airbnb agreement, she said, “(Simonetti) engaged in slander per se as well as libel per se by claiming I was squatting.”

She said the Airbnb agreement was from June 3 to Aug. 31.

Simonetti’s rental arrangement with Vasquez is questionable because Simonetti is not the property owner. A Hennepin County property search shows that the house is owned by a different individual. Reports indicate that the actual owner was unaware of the sub-rental. Edina’s regulations prohibit short-term rentals like those offered on online vacation rental platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo.

“The OWNER of the home was not Marisa,” Vasquez said in a text. “The owner is the only person with authority to tell me to leave. Marisa represented herself as the owner of the home when she wasn’t. Once the true owner and I spoke, he by no means kicked me out. He only suggested I hurry and find somewhere safe because of how disturbing she was behaving.”

Vasquez said she thinks Simonetti tossed the spider intentionally because she knew Vasquez is scared of spiders. “She wanted to make a point, like ‘you thought there was a spider infestation,’” she said.

Regarding what happened to the spider, Vasquez said, “It was left there when I left the house. I was scared of walking out, so a female officer stayed with me until I had everything and even looked at the spider in the container.”

Simonetti said she’s not sure where the spider ended up.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe it’s for the next guy who tries to break in.”