Former Virginia House of Delegates candidate Susanna Gibson Payne, who drew national attention in 2023 when sexually explicit videos of her were leaked online during her campaign, has now been arrested in Henrico County on a domestic violence charge.
Authorities confirmed that Payne, 42, turned herself in on September 22 after a misdemeanor warrant was issued for “assault and battery – family member.”
She was released shortly afterward.
The former candidate, who ran as a Democrat in Richmond’s suburbs, said the charge was the result of a false complaint by her estranged husband, attorney John David Gibson, 44.
Payne described the legal action as part of a continuing pattern of harassment since she filed for divorce.
“After my estranged husband, arrested three times since I filed for divorce, assaulted me during a June 2025 custody exchange while I protected our son, he filed a retaliatory criminal complaint against me,” Payne said in a statement.
She added that the warrant was not filed until several months after the alleged incident.
“More than three months later, police issued a misdemeanor warrant for my arrest. I turned myself in immediately,” she explained.
Court documents show John Gibson was arrested multiple times in December 2024.
Charges included violating a protective order, extortion and use of threatening language.
Records indicate that Payne sought protection from the court just days before those arrests, filing for a protective order that cited “family abuse.”
The order was later granted in January 2025.
Despite these past incidents, John Gibson has not publicly responded to the most recent allegations, and he declined to comment when reached for inquiries.
Payne’s personal and political battles first came into the public spotlight during the 2023 Virginia elections, the New York Post previously reported.
At the time, she was considered a strong Democratic challenger positioned to win a Richmond-area delegate seat.
Her campaign was derailed after explicit videos of Payne and her husband appeared online.
The videos, recorded on the adult streaming platform Chaturbate, were reportedly archived and then distributed to the media.
Republican operatives were later identified as the individuals who exposed the content.
Payne denied accusations that she had performed the acts for money, stating the recordings were part of her husband’s fantasy.
Payne said she never knew the videos had been stored and later used against her.
“It won’t intimidate me and it won’t silence me,” Payne said during the scandal.
She claimed the exposure violated Virginia’s revenge porn laws and described it as a form of sexual abuse.
“My political opponents and their Republican allies have proven they’re willing to commit a sex crime to attack me and my family because there’s no line they won’t cross to silence women when they speak up,” Payne declared at the height of the controversy.
Although she lost the election, her defeat was by a narrow margin of fewer than 1,000 votes.
Following the loss, Payne shifted her focus to advocacy.
The Post reported that she founded MyOwn Image, an organization dedicated to reforming online privacy laws and addressing gender-based violence in the digital era.
Speaking to Politico after the campaign, she said the experience had permanently altered her outlook. “I would say I’ve fundamentally changed as a human, as a professional.”
“A political operative found sexually explicit videos of a young woman running for office that she never knew existed … and shopped them around to various news outlets, trying to get them published to humiliate, intimidate, coerce, harass this woman.”
Payne has continued to push for reforms to the justice system.
In response to her September arrest, she again called attention to what she views as systemic flaws.
“Survivors deserve a justice system that recognizes abuse dynamics and protects our safety, not one that allows abusers to weaponize the law as continued control,” she said.
“I’m a mother and domestic violence survivor navigating a system that too often punishes those who seek safety.”
Her case is now pending in Henrico County, where she faces a misdemeanor domestic violence charge.
As of now, no trial date has been announced.
