SUN CITY, AZ (AZFamily) — Bernadette Greene-Placentia, the Democratic candidate in Arizona’s 8th Congressional District, said she was sexually assaulted while fixing campaign signs in the West Valley in August.
She said fear, embarrassment and trauma kept her from reporting the attack right away. Now, she says she’s sharing her story in hopes that it could help others.
She said she woke up on the ground
Greene-Placentia told investigators she was checking campaign signs between 2 and 3 a.m. on Aug. 14 near 99th Avenue and Bell Road in Sun City when she was hit in the back of the head. She said she lost consciousness and later woke up during the sexual assault by two men she did not know.
“My next memory is thinking that my bed was really uncomfortable and then the realization that I was actually on my back on the ground,” she said.
She told investigators she had injuries to her head and arm. Greene-Placentia said she told her husband about the assault two or three days later.
“I had no plans of coming forward. It was like, you know what? I’m just going to forget this happened. I’m just moving on,” she said.
She said trauma shaped her response
Greene-Placentia reported the assault to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office about two weeks later. She told investigators she showered several times, had not received a sexual assault exam and washed the clothes she wore that night.
“In hindsight, I wish as soon as I’d crawled into my car, I had called the police and had them come to me and take me, you know, for a rape kit and collect my clothes for DNA,” she said.
She added that, in the moment, she was be focused on survival rather than what steps to take and says others may find themselves in similar positions.
“You may not be thinking in your right mind or logically; it just kind of flies out the window. You’re in survival mode and get the hell out of there mode,” she said.
Greene-Placentia said she wants to tell her story on her own terms.
“How could this happen to me? And I know it’s not logical, but there’s this feeling like it’s my fault, like I did something wrong,” she said.
Response to her story has been mixed
Greene-Placentia’s story has drawn both praise and questions about her motives. We asked her about comments online suggesting she was using the allegations to advance her campaign.
“No woman would come forward, especially in the public eye, and voluntarily want this kind of scrutiny,” she answered.
She said she is trying to focus on issues affecting people in her district, including Medicare, SNAP, VA funding, education, water shortages and health care, adding that she never wanted this rape to take over her campaign.
Her story is unfolding as the “Cornell 7” case prompts discussion about why women may struggle to come forward. Arizona’s Family also asked her whether she saw parallels with Jane Doe, the woman in that case.
Greene-Placentia said it was “really horrible that any woman has to go through first the trauma of being assaulted and then to have to go through the trauma of not being believed or being questioned and being judged.”
Greene-Placentia said doubt and judgment from some community members illustrate why survivors may fear reporting sexual assault, including after they come forward.
A sheriff’s office spokesperson said detectives are continuing to work to identify suspects. Greene-Placentia said she has not personally heard from investigators for several weeks.
Greene-Placentia is running against Trump-backed GOP incumbent Abraham “Abe” Hamadeh in Arizona’s 8th Congressional District. Hamadeh issued a statement Wednesday about the reported assault, calling for a thorough investigation and prosecution of any suspects.
See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.
Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.
Copyright 2026 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.
