A candidate for the Hennepin County Board in Minnesota was arrested on assault charges after she was accused of throwing a live tarantula at her tenant.

Marisa Simonetti told NBC News on Thursday that the incident stemmed from local attorney Jackie Vasquez’s alleged refusal to leave her property.

Vasquez disputed Simonetti’s version of events, accusing her of cutting off internet access, creating a “hostile environment” and making it “impossible” for her to safely leave.

“I desperately wanted to [leave],” Vasquez said in a phone interview Saturday. “She disconnected the internet, she created a hostile environment. … I didn’t refuse to leave. Only when she was arrested, I fled.”

Simonetti said that she had rented Vasquez a room in her five-bedroom house through Airbnb but that after a series of incidents, Simonetti canceled the reservation. Edina, a suburb of Minneapolis, says it does not allow short-term rentals like Airbnb.

“She was in my house less than two weeks before she started sending me double-, triple-paragraph long texts and yelling at people on the phone at 10:30 at night for an hour,” said Simonetti, who lives in the home with her son. “I’m just sitting up here … thinking this is not going to go well.”

Simonetti accused Vasquez of threatening to ruin her campaign and sending “paragraph-long threatening messages” through her campaign website.

Vasquez denied it, saying she has a “public duty to inform those that are endorsing her.”

“It wasn’t a threat,” Vasquez said.

Things allegedly escalated last Thursday, the day Simonetti said Vasquez was supposed to move out. Simonetti alleged that Vasquez intentionally closed a door on her arm. Vasquez, however, said Simonetti tried to forcibly enter the basement area where Vasquez was staying.

“I told her, ‘You are trespassing. You are not allowed to be in this property. This is my personal occupancy. You need to leave.’ And I grab the doorknob and closed it. She just so happened to be standing next to it. … There was no intentional closing of a door.”

Police were called to the home three times that day, both women said. Edina police did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident.

Simonetti said she went to a pet store and bought the tarantula after Vasquez “barricaded herself in my basement like she had no intention of leaving.”

“I just thought, how far is she going to go? Is she going to hurt me or my son? I can’t have this here,” she said. “The police didn’t help me; I’m all on my own.”

Vasquez told NBC affiliate KARE of Minneapolis that Simonetti threw the tarantula at her, among other items. She told the station that it was a scary encounter.

Simonetti said she “gently tipped it down the stairs.”

“I’m not a physically violent person, and I watched the movie ‘Home Alone’ growing up, and I was like, you know what, this is such a strange situation,” Simonetti said. “If I’m scared or hurt, I try and make jokes. And I was so scared, I was just like, I didn’t know what to do, and so, yeah, I got the spider.”

Simonetti said she was shocked to be arrested over the incident. Online jail records show she was charged with fifth-degree assault and misdemeanor domestic assault. The charges involve fear of bodily harm.

She was released Monday afternoon on her own recognizance. By the time she got back home, she said, Vasquez had moved out.

Local Republicans distanced themselves from Simonetti following her arrest. Randy Sutter, chair for the 3rd Congressional District Republicans, said she does not reflect their values and “has only served to embarrass the Republican Party,” the Star Tribune reported.

Simonetti was the runner-up in the summer’s special election in the nonpartisan Hennepin County Board race running as a conservative, according to KARE. She has faced legal trouble in the past, including allegations of credit card fraud after she was accused of running up an $80,000 bill on her ex-fiancé’s card, the station reported. The case was dropped after the ex-fiancé settled with her in court.

She and an ex-boyfriend also have restraining orders against each other following allegations of stalking and assault, according to KARE.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com