Petersen allies pushing decades-old, unproven sex claim about Glassman

For months, political operatives have passed around a document containing explosive allegations about Rodney Glassman, a GOP candidate for Arizona Attorney General. For the most part, the document has remained the subject of rumor and gossip among political insiders.

Until recently, that is. Last week, the document’s allegations — which detail sexual misconduct claims from decades ago that are nearly impossible to verify independently — were pushed into broad daylight. And fans of Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen, Glassman’s challenger for the GOP nomination, have been among those doing the pushing.

Last week, the allegation landed at the Arizona Attorney General’s Office in the form of a citizen complaint, which was quickly deflected. The lead-up to that official filing is a case study in contemporary Arizona politics.

In a video filmed May 13 at a Glassman meet-and-greet at Rudy’s Bar-B-Q in Scottsdale, Republican social media activist Gaby Biggs asked the 48-year-old Glassman to respond to allegations that he had “raped” his brother Jeremy, now 41, when Jeremy “was a kid.” In response, Glassman stood silent with his hands on his hips as a member of the audience objected to the inquiry as a “gotcha” question. “Can we go to the next one?” Glassman asked.

The video, which has garnered more than 122,000 views on X so far, was posted by Manuela Callini, who described herself to Phoenix New Times as a Scottsdale mom and businesswoman with no connection to the Petersen campaign. The following day, Callini posted audio to X of what she later told New Times was her questioning Glassman at a Superstition Mountain Republican Club meeting about “very serious allegations that have surfaced on X.” Though Callini was intentionally obscure in her question, Glassman was acutely aware of the nature of the allegations. This time, he had a response prepared.

“I’m not going to respond to that garbage,” Glassman said in the audio. “It’s bullshit.”

Glassman blamed the “attacks” on Petersen and noted that Callini had been at the Rudy’s event as well. Callini told Glassman she was not affiliated with Petersen but was attending only as a “mom,” adding, “I’m going to the next event to ask the same question until I get an answer.”

New Times reached out to Glassman, his brother Jeremy and Jeremy’s attorney, Tiffany & Bosco’s Lance Broberg, who press accounts say doubles as attorney for Glassman’s political campaign. Broberg said he could not discuss the matter, and Rodney Glassman has not responded. However, Jeremy Glassman sent New Times a statement denying the allegations and blaming a former business associate named Mike von Gold.

“These allegations being spread around on the internet are false,” Jeremy Glassman wrote. “Mr. Von Gold used to work for me and my company and he has been trying to extort me for quite some time, most recently demanding $500,000. He’s now using my brother’s campaign as another avenue to try to escalate his attempt at extortion. I have filed a criminal complaint with the city of Tempe against Mr. Von Gold. I intend to prosecute fully any and all claims against anyone who aids this individual or publishes false and defamatory statements regarding this matter.”

The Tempe Police Department confirmed that someone named Jeremy Glassman has filed a report, but did not provide any further details or the report. New Times has placed a public records request for the report but has not yet received it.

At the root of the allegations are the claims made by Von Gold, a former friend and business associate of Jeremy Glassman. In a February affidavit that has circulated in political circles — and which has since been posted online, albeit in heavily redacted form, by Republican activist and Petersen ally Merissa Caldwell — Von Gold claimed that Jeremy Glassman confessed to him that his older brother had sexually abused him when he was a child. Von Gold has also shared purported audio of a Glassman-associated attorney saying that Jeremy Glassman had told him the same thing.

For several months, New Times has been looking into the affidavit, which a confidential source provided earlier this year. New Times has also spoken to Von Gold, whose allegations against Rodney Glassman are neither ironclad nor gossamer-thin. They are old, unproven and second-hand. And considering that he is also seeking money from the Glassman family to settle an old business grievance, Von Gold is motivated both financially and by a desire for what he calls “justice.”

There is ample evidence that Von Gold and Jeremy Glassman were once close. The major questions about the claims’ veracity might have kept most political opponents from touching them with a flagpole. But that hasn’t stopped Petersen’s hyper-online supporters, not while Glassman is significantly out-fundraising him in the GOP primary.

Here’s what New Times has learned about the allegations — and about the people trying hard to make them stick.

Thanksgiving with the Glassmans

In his affidavit and in multiple interviews with New Times, Von Gold laid out his relationship with Jeremy Glassman and how it foundered. 

A thin, muscular man with a black beard and a German accent — Von Gold says he is a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Munich — Von Gold was a sound and tech guru working for a hearing technology company when he met Jeremy in 2017 at the Flagstaff music festival Pitch a Tent. Von Gold had a passion for electronic music and DJing. He said Jeremy eventually made him an offer he couldn’t refuse: Work with me, all expenses paid, and together we’ll build an electronic dance music empire.

He and Jeremy were partners in the music venture for four or five years, playing well-paying gigs at private parties and festivals in Arizona, California, Mexico and Israel. They did business under the name Glass and Gold and later went by Electric Polar Bear, an entity Jeremy registered with the Arizona Corporation Commission in 2017.

Von Gold claims he was the creative force behind the venture, while Jeremy handled the business side. Jeremy also had money from his father, Robert Glassman, the family patriarch and fertilizer king of Fresno, California. Von Gold estimated the music business was making $400,000 to $600,000 per year, and up to $42,000 per show. Though he was doing the heavy lifting — setting up equipment, designing laser shows, picking the music — he said he was not paid a regular salary. Instead, he roomed with Jeremy at the latter’s condo in Tempe, drove company cars and paid for expenses with company credit cards, some of which he showed to New Times.

Von Gold said he was also an intimate of the Glassman family, joining the family at Rodney’s $9 million Biltmore Estates home for Thanksgiving dinner. Von Gold said he also traveled with the Glassmans on vacation to Hawaii and bonded with Jeremy’s mom — Linda Britz Glassman, heir to the Britz family chemical fortune — over their mutual love of cooking. Jeremy’s father was a harder nut to crack.

“Very strange dynamics,” Von Gold said of the Glassman family. “The dad’s the king, but everyone ignores him. He cracks the funniest jokes, though. Very dark humor and nobody laughs. I actually think he’s really funny, though.”

Von Gold said his relationship with Jeremy Glassman fractured at the Burning Man festival in 2022. Von Gold said that he is heterosexual and his relationship with Jeremy was platonic, though he said he realizes in hindsight that there were signs leading up to Burning Man that Jeremy wanted something else. Jeremy would want to wrestle him, he said. One time, Jeremy grabbed his butt. Another time, Jeremy pinched his nipples. “You’re not allowed to touch me like that,” Von Gold remembered telling him.

On another occasion, he said, Jeremy tried to spoon him while Von Gold was asleep. Von Gold woke up and yelled at Jeremy, who withdrew, claiming he’d been afraid that Von Gold was dying.

As they prepared to leave Burning Man, Von Gold said, Jeremy confessed that he loved him and wanted to have a romantic relationship. Von Gold said Jeremy also explained that his brother sexually assaulted him when he was 11. Shocked, Von Gold rejected Jeremy’s advances.

“Maybe he thought he actually had a chance of turning me gay,” Von Gold told New Times. “I would rather jump into a volcano, get revived and jump in again infinitely than even think about something like that.”

That conversation is the basis of Von Gold’s claims about Rodney Glassman. In his affidavit, Von Gold wrote that Jeremy “described to me behavior that suggests he was severely abused, physically and sexually, by his older brother Rodney.” Von Gold also quoted recordings he allegedly made in which California attorney Joe Nazarian, a onetime friend of both Jeremy and Von Gold, described how Jeremy had been “raped” by Rodney when they were both much younger, suggesting that Jeremy had repeated the pattern of inappropriate behavior by targeting Von Gold.

“Semantics doesn’t matter,” Nazarian is quoted in the affidavit as saying. “What basically I’m saying is that he was sexually abused by his brother. Typically, when people are traumatized as children, they will pass on that trauma. So, he tried to do what his brother did to him, to you. That’s really what it comes down to.”

Nazarian did not return multiple calls from New Times asking for comment.

Photos online show Nazarian, Jeremy and Von Gold at parties together, and Von Gold backed up other elements of his story with pictures, recordings and text messages, many between himself and Jeremy. However, Von Gold’s claims about the Glassman brothers lack direct evidence, relying on hearsay to buttress allegations that are decades old and almost impossible to prove or disprove.

Von Gold also has a personal bone to pick with the Glassmans.

After Burning Man and Jeremy’s alleged confession, Jeremy began cutting Von Gold out of the business. By the end of December, Von Gold moved out of Jeremy’s condo and was asking to be cashed out of the company. Von Gold gave New Times recordings of his negotiations with Jeremy’s lawyers: first Nazarian, then Broberg. During Von Gold’s conversations with Nazarian, the attorney seemed to concede that Von Gold was owed money for his work for the company. Nazarian also described Jeremy as “super confused sexually” in part because he was “sexually abused by his brother.”

In May 2023, Von Gold agreed to a $38,000 settlement and signed a nondisparagement agreement. Von Gold said he received only $28,000. Because of this — and because he felt he was owed much more for his part in building the business — Von Gold began to explore reopening negotiations.

In the February 2026 affidavit, which Von Gold said was drafted by his attorneys to be sent to Broberg, Von Gold insisted that he had taken the money and signed a nondisparagement agreement because he was “facing homelessness” and was “under duress.” Von Gold said his attorneys sent a demand letter to Broberg at Tiffany & Bosco, asking for $500,000.

Broberg responded in an April 9 letter, which Von Gold supplied to New Times. The letter accused Von Gold of “attempting to blackmail Jeremy out of a half-a-million dollars by baselessly accusing Jeremy and his family members of sexual misconduct.” It denied all of Von Gold’s allegations, including that Jeremy “attempted to sexually assault” Von Gold at Burning Man. It further contended that Von Gold was “in breach of the settlement agreement,” advising him to “cease and desist” making any derogatory comments about Jeremy. It also stated that Jeremy “reserves all rights and remedies relative to any damage caused thus far.”

This was apparently enough for Von Gold’s attorneys to take a powder, leaving Von Gold on his own. Then, on May 10, Von Gold posted a statement to X, explaining that he was “told allegations involving Rodney Glassman, including alleged abuse and sexual misconduct of a minor family member,” adding that “the victim assaulted me previously on multiple occasions before disclosing this to me.”

Von Gold also recently posted a link on X to a GoFundMe account to help him with “potential legal expenses from speaking out.” As of Tuesday afternoon, there had been no donations.

Petersen fans on a mission

Von Gold’s affidavit had been circulating in Arizona political spheres long before he posted his allegations online. Several politicos in town — Republican and Democrat alike — have been aware of the existence of the affidavit and/or the allegations therein, including Petersen and some friendly to his campaign.

Recently, a high-profile attorney — who claimed not to be acting on behalf of Petersen — approached New Times, offering to share the Von Gold affidavit and its supporting audio recordings, though New Times already possessed them. Then, in mid-May, Callini, Caldwell and Biggs catapulted the issue from the rumor mill into the public realm with campaign stop queries, posts on X and a complaint to the Attorney General’s Office, garnering a wider audience in the process and demanding a rigorous vetting. 

Asked how his February affidavit gained such wide currency behind the scenes of the Arizona political arena, Von Gold said that he didn’t know. But he admitted that others, in addition to his attorneys, had access to the document. Von Gold said he’s had no contact with Petersen’s campaign, but conceded that he has talked to people “enthusiastic” about Petersen, including Gaby Biggs. Some of those people offered him their “opinions” about the saga.

In an interview with New Times, Biggs said she supports Petersen’s candidacy. According to campaign finance records online at the Arizona Secretary of State’s website, Biggs gave $5,500 to the Friends of Warren Petersen in August 2025. But Biggs — who says she is not related to Arizona gubernatorial candidate Andy Biggs — claimed she was not directly involved in the Petersen campaign.

Caldwell, who also attended the event at which Biggs confronted Glassman, has taken things a step further. In addition to posting the redacted Von Gold affidavit, she also posted a portion of one of the supposed Nazarian tapes to her X account, which has more than 36,000 followers. Caldwell, who bills herself as a citizen journalist, also filed a May 13 complaint against Glassman with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. She attached the redacted Von Gold affidavit, which quoted the alleged Nazarian tapes as stating that Jeremy was “raped multiple times as a child” by his older brother. Caldwell also included details of another uncorroborated allegation of sexual misconduct from “an anonymous source” regarding “a good friend of the source” who supposedly dated Rodney Glassman 25 years ago in Tucson.

In an interview with New Times, Caldwell admitted that she supported Petersen, but said she does not work for his campaign. On her website, Caldwell mentions that she signed a petition to get Petersen on the ballot. The website also states that she “helped elect a grassroots Senate President with Warren Petersen now leading the way in AZ.” Similarly, Callini told New Times that she believed Petersen to be the superior candidate, but insisted that she was not acting on behalf of the Petersen campaign but only as a concerned mother.

The office of Attorney General Kris Mayes, the incumbent Democrat who in November will take on the winner of the GOP primary, quickly responded to Caldwell’s complaint. “Based on a review of all information provided to our office, it has been determined that the local law enforcement agency where the incidents occurred would be your best option to file this complaint,” the response reads.

Petersen insists his hands are clean of the charge of circulating the allegations against Glassman. Yet he hasn’t shied away from hitting his opponent over the head with them.

“The information didn’t come from my campaign,” Petersen said when New Times contacted him. “But shouldn’t Glassman be more worried about answering why three credible people have now said that he sexually abused children?”

Asked who these “three credible people” were, Petersen mentioned Von Gold, Nazarian and “the woman from Tucson” — apparently the one mentioned in Caldwell’s affidavit. However, he said he knew these people only from the affidavits released on social media, raising the question of how he could have ascertained their credibility.

New Times also asked Petersen if he was aware of the Von Gold affidavit prior to its publication. Petersen replied via text that “I heard some rumors.” But Petersen knew more than that. In fact, Petersen was aware of the Von Gold affidavit as early as late February, because Petersen knew that a confidential source supportive of his campaign had passed an unredacted copy to New Times. Indeed, Petersen recently contacted New Times to ask if the Von Gold affidavit would become the subject of news coverage.

Similarly, Rodney Glassman must have been familiar with Von Gold’s allegations long before he was confronted with them at Rudy’s Bar-B-Q. His campaign’s attorney, Broberg, fielded the claim from Von Gold and shut him down. Why Glassman was so poorly prepared for the inevitable confrontation is not clear.

As the July 21 primary draws near, so does the potential impact of the accusations. Early voting begins June 24, and a Clean Elections Commission debate between Petersen and Glassman is scheduled for May 28. Petersen’s strength is with the party faithful, who cheered him when President Donald Trump name-checked him at a Turning Point USA rally in April. The same crowd booed the mere mention of Glassman’s name when it was dropped by Rep. Paul Gosar, a Glassman supporter.

Glassman’s history as a turncoat Democrat — he ran for Senate as a Democrat against John McCain in 2010, but became a Republican in 2015 with the advent of Trump — and as a perennial losing candidate for a variety of offices does not bode well for him. But Glassman has funds aplenty and has been making ad buys on cable TV and radio. His most recent campaign finance report showed him with more than $4 million in cash on hand, at least $1 million of which was his own money. Meanwhile, Petersen had only $123,000 on hand at the end of the same reporting period. That may explain the intensity of the sales pitch from various parties to New Times regarding the Von Gold affidavit.