A Democratic congressional candidate in Arizona says she was raped over the summer time whereas making an attempt to restore a marketing campaign signal.
Bernadette Greene-Placentia, who’s working within the state’s eighth district to attempt to unseat GOP Rep. Abe Hamadeh, instructed the Phoenix New Instances, an area information outlet, that she was attacked at round 2 a.m. as she was strolling towards a marketing campaign register a car parking zone in Solar Metropolis, north of Phoenix.
Greene-Placentia mentioned she was attacked, subdued after which woke as much as discover that she was being raped by an unknown assailant.
Bernadette Greene-Placentia is seen on this undated photograph supplied by her marketing campaign.
Courtesy Bernadette Greene-Placentia marketing campaign
Greene-Placentia instructed the information outlet she reported the assault to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Workplace, and that she selected to inform her story as a result of she had been speaking about combating for Arizona residents whereas campaigning “and I did not really feel like I might preserve saying that if I weren’t additionally combating for ladies which are victims of sexual assault.”
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Workplace confirmed to ABC Information {that a} report was filed on Aug. 31 and that there’s an ongoing investigation, however mentioned the workplace couldn’t remark additional on the investigation.
In a press release to ABC Information, a marketing campaign spokesperson mentioned the assault occurred round 2 a.m. on Aug. 14.
“Bernadette made the tough determination to talk publicly in regards to the assault as a result of she desires different survivors to know they aren’t alone,” the spokesperson mentioned. “She is grateful for the help she has acquired from the neighborhood and asks that her privateness be revered as she continues to course of what occurred.”
In a telephone name with ABC Information, Greene-Placentia’s marketing campaign supervisor, Isaiah Lopez, confirmed that she went “lacking in motion” for 2 days following the assault.
Lopez mentioned the marketing campaign was at a canvass occasion in Chandler, Arizona, a pair days after the alleged assault on a Sunday, and he or she was “noticeably distraught.” He mentioned he and her communications supervisor spoke along with her privately that day whereas the marketing campaign occasion was nonetheless happening the place she instructed them that she’d been raped whereas repairing marketing campaign indicators.
In a press release, Greene-Placentia’s opponent within the Home race, Hamadeh, mentioned: “I’ve learn the disturbing story and name upon authorities to analyze these critical allegations totally, together with discovering all potential digital camera footage of the time and place so as to prosecute the crime to the fullest extent of the regulation. No American ought to develop into a sufferer of against the law in their very own neighborhood.”
