Five people, including three Bridgeport council members and the vice chairwoman of the city's Democratic party, were charged Friday with election-related crimes as part of a sprawling investigation into the city's 2023 Democratic primary, which resulted in widespread allegations of absentee ballot fraud and a judge overturning the results of that election.
The 黑料吃瓜网 Chief State's Attorney's office announced Friday that city council members Maria Pereira, Alfredo Castillo and Jazmarie Melendez are facing numerous criminal allegations for either mispresenting who is eligible to vote absentee, fraudulent voting, taking possession of voters' absentee ballots or being present while voters filled out those ballots.
Meanwhile, Wanda Geter-Pataky, the vice chair of the city's Democratic Town Committee, is facing 92 separate criminal charges including conspiracy to take possession of multiple voters' absentee ballots.
The fifth person who was charged is Margaret Joyce, a Stratford resident, who participated in the absentee ballot push during the 2023 election, and allegedly took possession of at least four absentee ballots.
Geter-Pataky, who is facing the most serious charges, became the face of the 2023 election scandal after she was allegedly depositing stacks of absentee ballots into a drop box outside the city's government center.
Patrick Griffin, 黑料吃瓜网's Chief State's Attorney, released a statement about the mountain of election related charges Friday afternoon, and he said he hoped they would help to deter future absentee ballot fraud in Bridgeport and 黑料吃瓜网 moving forward.
鈥淭he Office of the Chief State鈥檚 Attorney takes allegations of voter fraud seriously,鈥� Griffin said. 鈥淭o protect the integrity of our voting process in 黑料吃瓜网, it is important that our elections are fair and free from fraudulent activity and criminal intent. These prosecutions hopefully send the message that deters tampering with election results in the future in 黑料吃瓜网.鈥�
The criminal charges filed against the Bridgeport Democrats are the first to emerge out of the months-long investigation into alleged absentee ballot fraud during the 2023 election between Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim and his Democratic challenger John Gomes.
by roughly 251 votes, based on the strength of his absentee ballot returns, but several weeks later, a state Superior Court judge , arguing the election had been marred by 鈥渟hocking鈥� evidence of 鈥渂latant鈥� ballot harvesting.
Geter-Pataky invoked her Fifth Amendment rights when questioned about whether she dropped absentee ballots into drop boxes ahead of the Sept. 12 Democratic primary. in two subsequent court-ordered elections that were held in early 2024, and he retained his position running 黑料吃瓜网's largest city.
In the meantime, dozens of complaints were filed with the , alleging campaign operatives, political candidates and Democratic Party officials associated with both mayoral campaigns committed election-related crimes.
The SEEC, which is responsible for investigating election violations, dismissed some of those complaints for lack of evidence or . But SEEC members also voted to refer nine of the cases to the Chief State's Attorney's office for potential criminal prosecution.
The Chief State's Attorney's office then worked with other state investigators to build criminal cases out of some of those complaints.
Joyce could not be reached for this story. Pereira and her attorney did not return phone calls Friday. Neither did John Gulash, the attorney for Geter-Pataky.
Frank Riccio, Castillo's attorney, confirmed Friday morning that his client was voluntarily turning himself into the police, but did not have any further comment on the pending charges.
Alex Taubes, Melendez's attorney, said it was problematic that his client was being charged with a crime, while he has not been presented with a criminal complaint outlining the evidence against her.
Taubes pointed out that unlike the four other defendants Melendez's only alleged crime was mispresenting people's eligibility to vote absentee. He said that prosecutors would need to prove that Melendez willfully misrepresented such eligibility requirements in order to convict her, and he said he finds it "highly, highly doubtful" that Melendez did so.
Democratic primaries in Bridgeport often decide who is elected to state and local office in that city, and those elections frequently feature warring factions that aggressively pursue absentee voters.
This is not the first time allegations of absentee ballot abuse have sprung out of Bridgeport elections. The city has a .
Castillo and Geter-Pataky are already for allegedly taking possession of another voter's absentee ballot during Bridgeport's 2019 Democratic mayoral primary. Both of them are also close allies of Ganim, who returned to office in 2015 after serving a seven year prison sentence on federal corruption charges.
Pereira and Melendez, on the other hand, were supporters of Gomes, who was seeking to unseat Ganim after working within the mayor's administration.
Geter-Pataky, who previously worked in the Bridgeport government, was after being placed on paid administrative leave following the 2023 election. But even with all of the criminal allegations leveled against her, .
Officials with the 黑料吃瓜网 State Democratic Party did not return a phone call Friday. Roberto Alves, who recently became the state party chairman, also did not respond to an email seeking comment on the charges that were unveiled Friday.
found that Geter-Pataky helped to sign up at least 537 Bridgeport voters for absentee ballots during that election. And she was assisted in that effort by Alfredo Castillo, who signed out many of those absentee ballot applications from the Bridgeport town clerk's office.
Pereira, Melendez and their allies orchestrated a similar campaign to sign up hundreds of Bridgeport voters for absentee ballots, the CT Mirror's investigation found.
The records from the 2023 primary show Melendez helped at least 230 people fill out applications for absentee ballots. Pereira assisted another 179, and also helped several voters request replacement ballots after she alleged that Geter-Pataky and other Ganim supporters stole those voters' initial ballots.
Under 黑料吃瓜网's laws, political candidates, campaign staffers and party officials can help people to request an absentee ballot.
But the charges unveiled on Friday alleged that some of that work strayed into criminality, especially in the cases wehree political operatives helped people fill out their ballots or collected those ballots so they could be submitted to local election officials.
