A former Democratic candidate whose 2023 campaign for the Virginia Legislature was upended by the revelation that she and her husband posted sex videos of themselves online has been arrested and charged with domestic violence.
Court records show Susanna Gibson, 42, was arrested Sept. 22 in Henrico County for assault and battery of a family member, a misdemeanor.
The arrest stemmed from an incident on June 18, according to the state’s judiciary database. Ms. Gibson was released after she turned herself in and had her initial court appearance.
Ms. Gibson said the charge stemmed from an encounter with her husband in which he became physical with her first, and he later filed the complaint in retribution.
“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,” Ms. Gibson told the New York Post, which first reported the charge.
“More than three months later, police issued a misdemeanor warrant for my arrest,” she said.
John David Gibson, 44, was arrested three times in December on charges of extortion, using threatening language and violating a protective order, court records show. The protective order was issued a month earlier after Ms. Gibson sought the document over “family abuse.”
Ms. Gibson is due in court on Dec. 1 for her assault charge.
The onetime political candidate had made a competitive run in 2023 for the 57th District seat in Virginia’s House of Delegates before Republican operatives shared the sex videos publicly.
The videos were from a website called Chaturbate that allows users to watch sexual content. The videos showed Ms. Gibson having sex with her husband and asking viewers for “tips” during breaks in the intercourse.
It’s unclear when the videos were recorded, but they were archived on similar websites in September 2022 — roughly the same time Ms. Gibson started running for office.
Ms. Gibson accused the Republican operative, who was not named, of disseminating revenge porn to derail her campaign.
“It won’t intimidate me and it won’t silence me,” she said at the time. “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.”
Democrats rallied around Ms. Gibson as she vied for the seat that covers parts of Henrico and Goochland counties in Richmond’s suburbs. The 57th District was one of the key battleground races in 2023 that would determine control of the House.
She ultimately lost to Republican David Owen in the election.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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