An ex candidate for Virginia state legislature whose for online sex videos with her husband sparked uproar when they were leaked has been arrested on a domestic violence charge — but she says it was the result of a bogus report from her now-estranged spouse.
Susanna Gibson Payne, 42, was arrested in Henrico County on Sept. 22 for “assault and battery – family member”
The 42-year-old was released after turning herself in.
But Gibson told The Post that her lawyer husband — 44-year-old John David Gibson — has been harassing her since she filed for divorce, and he was the one who got aggressive with her.
“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,” Gibson said
More than three months later, police issued a misdemeanor warrant for my arrest. I turned myself in immediately,” she added.
Arrest records show John Gibson was arrested several times last December for violation of a protective order, extortion and use of threatening language.
Those arrests happened just days after his wife requested a protective order against him for “family abuse,” which was granted the following month, records show.
John Gibson did not respond to a request for comment.
His estranged wife was a competitive Democratic underdog on track to snatch a Richmond delegate seat in Virginia’s 2023 state race when Republican operatives leaked her online sex shows to the media.
The nurse had recorded X-rated videos with her husband on the live-streaming porn platform Chaturbate, which were archived offsite without her knowing and then leaked.
She was also accused of shooting the videos for pay from viewers — a violation of Chaturbate’s platform — a charge she vehemently denied, later saying the videos were only ever made to fulfill her husband’s fantasy.
Gibson was undeterred by the scandal, however, and pressed on with her campaign.
“It won’t intimidate me and it won’t silence me,” Gibson said in the thick of the scandal, arguing the leak had violated Virginia revenge porn laws and was 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,” she added.
Gibson ended up losing the race, but by fewer than 1,000 votes.
She’s since dedicated herself to advocating against “gender-based and sexual violence” with the founding of “MyOwn Image,” an organization which seeks to update online privacy legislation. Gibson believes laws have not kept pace with the digital age.
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“I would say I’ve fundamentally changed as a human, as a professional,” she told Politico after the scandal. “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.”
Gibson doubled down on her stance that the justice system needs overhaul as news of her September arrest emerged.
“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.”
