PHOENIX (CN) — State Representative Leezah Sun committed a “pattern of disorderly behavior” that culminated in a death threat against a lobbyist, the Arizona House Ethics Committee concluded in a report released Tuesday afternoon.
The committee held two hearings to decide whether allegations made against Sun — some of which she’s admitted to — are true, resulting in a recommendation that the entire state House decide what disciplinary action should be taken.
Typically, legislators who violate the rules of their governing body could receive a censure — a formal statement of disapproval — or be expelled. Both options require a majority vote.
Sun, a Democrat from Phoenix, told three lobbyists at a professional meeting in August 2023 that if she saw Pilar Siwani, a lobbyist for the city of Tolleson, Arizona, she would “bitch slap her” and “throw her off the balcony to kill her,” according to two of the lobbyists that testified in her second ethics committee hearing. She said that in the lobby of a Marriott in Tucson, which contains a large indoor balcony at least two stories high.
Sun denied saying she’d throw the lobbyist off the balcony, but admitted to saying she would “bitch slap her.”
“I was being dramatic and there was clearly not a real threat,” she told the committee Thursday.
“Nonetheless, the committee finds credible the testimony that she in fact levied a death threat about the Tolleson official while acting in her capacity as a member of the Arizona House of Representatives,” committee members wrote in the report.
Sun was angry with Siwani after a separate dispute that occurred in May, in which she was in a heated argument with Siwani and two other Tolleson city officials after she went to the Tolleson Civic Center looking for the Mayor. The officials said Sun was verbally aggressive, and at times they feared for their physical safety.
Those officials further complained that Sun sent Instagram friend requests to Siwani’s husband and the daughter of another official, saying her actions were clearly meant to intimidate. Sun said her social media team sends out hundreds of friend requests, and that sending a single request doesn’t constitute harassment.
While Thursday’s hearing focused only on the threat made against the lobbyist, the committee also investigated two other claims of intimation and disorderly conduct, one being that Sun interfered with a court-ordered custody transfer to which she wasn’t a legal party and was otherwise not involved.
In June, Sun noticed a custody supervisor in a Dairy Queen parking lot trying for nearly an hour to convince four minor children to get into the car with their father, according to the report. She approached the supervisor, wearing her official House of Representatives name badge, and told her to “call it a day.” She apparently ignored the supervisor as she repeated that the transfer was court ordered and must take place, and insisted that the supervisor leave the children alone.
The report indicates that Sun told the supervisor that she would report her conduct back to the Arizona attorney general. Because she tried to levy her authority as a state representative, the committee found that she abused her power.
Finally, the report details a threat Sun made at Tolleson Elementary School District superintendent Roger Freeman in December 2022, after she was elected but before she took office. Though she met with him to discuss legislation, Freeman reported that their conversation turned into a “series of lectures” about what the school district is doing wrong, culminating in a vague threat that she would “investigate” Freeman.
House Democrats filed an ethics complaint against Sun on Nov. 6, claiming she engaged in a "pattern of erratic and aggressive behavior" that is "unbecoming of an elected official.”
In a response filed by her attorney, Sun denied bringing up the attorney general during the custody dispute, and again denied threatening to throw the lobbyist off the building. Responding to the May incident in Tolleson, her attorney wrote that the city officials shouldn’t have been intimidated by Sun, because Sun is “a 52-year-old unarmed 5’4” woman who weighs 140 pounds.”
Sun’s office didn’t return a phone call requesting comment. It’s unclear when the House will decide what disciplinary action to take.
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