Gibson Arrested On Domestic Violence Charges
Susanna Gibson Payne, once a rising star in Virginia’s Democratic political landscape, is again making headlines—this time, not for her controversial online past but for an arrest tied to domestic violence charges.
On September 22, Gibson was taken into custody on a misdemeanor count of assault and battery against a family member. But behind the terse legal language lies a tangled personal and political drama that has followed Gibson for over a year.
Gibson, a 42-year-old nurse practitioner who ran for state delegate in 2023, came under intense scrutiny during her campaign after explicit videos surfaced online. The footage, originally recorded on the adult site Chaturbate, featured her and her husband in sexually explicit acts. Though she claimed the streams were never for profit, Gibson’s political opponents seized on the story. The controversy cost her what became one of the most closely watched races in the state.
Now, she’s facing a different battle: one rooted in a deeply bitter divorce. Speaking to the New York Post, Gibson accused her estranged husband, John David Gibson, of retaliatory harassment and manipulation of the justice system.
“After my estranged husband, arrested three times since I filed for divorce, assaulted me during a June 2025 custody exchange… he filed a retaliatory criminal complaint against me,” she said. Records support at least part of her claim: John Gibson was indeed arrested multiple times in late 2024 for violating a protective order and using threatening language.
Susanna Gibson turned herself in promptly after the warrant was issued. In her statement, she framed the arrest as another chapter in a prolonged struggle for safety and autonomy. “Survivors deserve a justice system that recognizes abuse dynamics… not one that allows abusers to weaponize the law,” she said. It’s a statement that echoes a larger national conversation about how family courts and legal systems handle domestic disputes in high-conflict divorces.
Throughout the ordeal, Gibson has remained defiant. From the leaked sex videos to the latest legal entanglement, she’s presented herself as a woman targeted by both political adversaries and a hostile former partner. “It won’t intimidate me and it won’t silence me,” she said in 2023 after the Chaturbate scandal erupted. And though she lost the election, the story didn’t fade.
In interviews since, Gibson has maintained that the sex video leak was an intentional act of political sabotage—what she described as a “sex crime” under Virginia’s revenge porn laws.
“A political operative found sexually explicit videos of a young woman running for office… and shopped them around,” she told Politico. Her claim: it wasn’t about scandal, it was about silencing a woman with ambition.