Petersen calls Glassman a ‘criminal,’ gay-bashes Kris Mayes at debate

Thursday’s debate between primary opponents in the Republican contest for Arizona Attorney General turned ugly fast. And it stayed ugly till the bitter end — particularly when Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen dropped a bomb, calling fellow nominee Rodney Glassman a “criminal” while referring to explosive, unproven allegations of sexual misconduct that Petersen’s camp has been pushing for months.

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Petersen took his swipe when moderator Steve Goldstein asked if he would support Glassman against Democratic incumbent Kris Mayes, should Petersen lose the primary. Petersen’s response was a shocker.

“There have been serious criminal allegations raised against Mr. Glassman,” Petersen said. He added, “I’ve listened to some of this. I’ve read some of this. I cannot support a criminal.”

Glassman, apparently prepared to respond, shot back. “There’s been disgusting attacks by Warren Petersen donors and supporters,” Glassman said. He accused Petersen’s people of “pushing false allegations by a disgruntled former employee of my brother” who Glassman claimed was “extorting my brother.” 

“Those allegations have been refuted and denied by everyone involved,” Glassman added. He called on Petersen to “stand down” and “to stop pushing those false allegations.”

Phoenix New Times has previously reported on the allegations, which were first made public by Petersen’s allies. They involve decades-old claims that Glassman’s younger brother, Jeremy, had been sexually assaulted by Rodney when Jeremy was a child. The allegations were repeated in a lawsuit brought by Jeremy’s former business partner, DJ and music producer Michael Von Gold. Von Gold alleged that Jeremy confided the tale of abuse to him at Burning Man 2022, while propositioning Von Gold for sex.

In his lawsuit and in an affidavit widely circulated by Petersen’s supporters, Von Gold stated that he rejected Jeremy’s advances, causing Jeremy to shut him out of a successful electronic music business they shared, known variously as Glass & Gold and Electric Polar Bears. Von Gold later received a $28,000 payment from the company and signed a non-disparagement agreement, which he now claims he was forced to accept.

Von Gold later sought $500,000 from Jeremy, an offer rejected by Jeremy’s attorneys. Recently, Von Gold went public on X with the allegations, including accusations that Jeremy sexually harassed him. Petersen allies seized on it, boosting Von Gold’s posts and ambushing Glassman with questions about it at campaign events.

Jeremy Glassman denied the allegations to New Times, accusing Von Gold of “trying to extort me” and saying he had filed a criminal complaint with the Tempe Police Department. (New Times has requested that report but has not yet received it.) Von Gold has denied all allegations of attempted extortion and blackmail. After the debate, Von Gold tweeted, “To my knowledge, no criminal charges have been filed against me, and any suggestion otherwise appears to stem from false allegations made to damage my reputation.”

On Thursday, Glassman’s outrage over Petersen’s dive into the muck was met with aplomb by Petersen. The Arizona Senate president said that he did not “prompt anyone” to spread the still-unfounded smear, but that he had been convinced of its legitimacy by audio of “an attorney who’s friends with the Glassmans,” in which the allegations against Rodney were discussed. 

“Listen to the audio, Arizona,” Petersen declared. “You will be convinced.”

Problem is, the allegations Petersen was alluding to — contained in a supposed recording of a telephone call between Von Gold and California attorney Joe Nazarian — are still second-hand, even if taken at face value. And Petersen was not being transparent when he insisted he had not prompted anyone to peddle incendiary rumors about his opponent.

Still, Petersen had no problem twisting the knife after rejecting Glassman’s offer to stand down.

“Here’s what I will do as the next attorney general,” Petersen said. “If there is evidence that has come forward of sexual abuse of children, I will take that seriously and I will prosecute through the full force of the law. People are not going to call the attorney general’s office and feel like it’s a waste of their time.”

Petersen criticized Glassman’s experience as a reserve officer with the Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Office. Glassman retorted that Petersen — who “never wore the uniform” and was “very un-American” — was “insulting a service member.” He accused Petersen of “collaborating” with Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs and attempted to pivot to attacking Mayes. However, Petersen persistently brought the debate back to Glassman and his many perceived faults, including Glassman’s history as a former Democrat and his several unsuccessful stabs at office.

After the debate, each candidate took turns taking questions from a scrum of reporters. Glassman looked hot under the collar when asked by one reporter about the sexual allegations mentioned by Petersen, again calling them “disgusting false allegations” that had been denied both by himself and his brother.

Asked about Nazarian’s statements in the recording that Petersen mentioned — the attorney recounted similar allegations to Von Gold in the audio — Glassman said he didn’t know Nazarian, calling the recording “more false allegations.” He defended his record as a born-again Republican who saw the light because of Donald Trump, and he said that he was prevented by ethical rules from disclosing the names of anyone he may have prosecuted as a reservist JAG officer.

“I have experience as a prosecutor,” Glassman said. “As you saw every time tonight that I talked about experience, all Warren Petersen could do was bring back tired attacks and false allegations, and he closed by saying that he cares more about his own election than protecting Arizonans from Kris Mayes.”

Plump and clearly pleased with himself, Petersen was up next before the reportorial gaggle. He advised reporters to listen to the “54-minute clip,” which he said could be found online, and decide for themselves.

“So, I saw something on paper,” Petersen said of the allegations, likely referring to Von Gold’s initial affidavit. “It didn’t really hit me that hard. I thought, ‘Well, who knows?’ But then, when I listen to the audio, it is so convincing.”

Petersen was certainly familiar with the Von Gold affidavit — specifically, he was aware that a confidential source supportive of his campaign had passed the document to New Times in February. Petersen even called New Times at one point to ask if the affidavit would score some news coverage, arguing that the paper had enough to move forward.

Petersen’s supporters eventually confronted Glassman with the lurid accusations at a campaign event. Later, a Petersen fan filed a redacted copy of Von Gold’s affidavit with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, adding anonymous allegations from a woman who claimed that a friend of hers supposedly dated Glassman while she was a minor in Tucson 25 years ago. The AG’s office responded that the complaint should instead be lodged with local law enforcement.

Petersen also engaged in a bit of gay-bashing after the debate. Earlier in the week, Petersen had retweeted a bogus smear that claimed Mayes, who is openly a member of the LGBTQ community, had conducted a “romantic relationship” with well-known community activist Stacey Champion, who has done media work for Mayes’ campaign.

This is another rumor that has been propagated by Petersen and his followers for many months — and one consistently denied by Champion, who is avowedly heterosexual. When New Times told Petersen that the allegation was false, he said that Champion’s denials didn’t mean a thing because he “had multiple people tell me that.”