Brianna Westbrook, a former top Arizona Democratic Party candidate, was arrested on Friday for allegedly barging her way into a former partner’s home with a knife and duct tape, according to court records. She now faces two felony charges and a misdemeanor.
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At approximately 6 p.m. on July 14, Phoenix police responded to a call to a home in a neighborhood near Indian School Road and Interstate 17, where a woman who identified herself as Westbrook’s ex-partner told police that the 41-year-old transgender rights activist and former vice chair of the Arizona Democratic Party knocked on her door earlier that evening. The ex-partner, believing the knock to be from her son, opened the door, at which point Westbrook pushed her way into the home.
Westbrook was “holding a knife in one hand and black tape in the other,” according to a probable cause statement filed by Phoenix police. “Westbrook and the victim wrestled until Westbrook eventually pushed the victim onto the couch and told her not to move.” The victim screamed, which brought her sister into the living room. Per police, “Westbrook started making a lunging motion with the knife” toward the two other women.
Westbrook “took off running out of the residence” after the victim asked her to stop because her son would be home soon.
Officers then went to Westbrook’s downtown Phoenix home, just two blocks from the Arizona Capitol, and detained her, according to court documents. Police said she exited her home while they were conducting surveillance and made “spontaneous utterances” about the situation being a “big misunderstanding.”
Westbrook admitted to going over to the home with a knife and tape, but said it was because she and her ex were “into BDSM.” She also claimed that the two had “agreed to re-enact a scene where Westbrook scares the victim to help her deal with prior childhood trauma of abuse,” and that the victim had agreed to that reenactment by sending a “subliminal message on Instagram.” Westbrook said the knife she carried was fake.
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Westbrook admitted to police to going over to her ex’s house with tape and what she said was a fake knife and ordering her former partner to sit on the couch, and to leaving when her former partner’s sister entered the room. She told police that it was her ex-partner’s “responsibility to inform her friends and family about the scene that is being re-enacted,” police wrote.
Westbrook’s ex disputed that version of events, telling police that it wasn’t a BSDM situation and that she never agreed to scene re-creation. Police obtained a search warrant for Westbrook’s home and recovered a knife, tape and gloves. Court records show Westbrook was charged with third-degree burglary and aggravated assault using a simulated deadly weapon, both class 3 felonies. She was also charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct. She was released on a $15,000 bond.
A release questionnaire related to Westbrook’s arrest shows that police checked boxes that Westbrook has a prior history of domestic violence and that the “frequency/intesity” of that domestic violence had been increasing. Maricopa County Superior Court records show no previous criminal charges for Westbrook. Phoenix New Times has requested police records regarding her but has not yet received them.
Westbrook did not return messages seeking comment. A preliminary hearing in her criminal case is scheduled for Monday.
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