....................
https://www.ctinsider.com/politics/article/bridgeport-ct-2019-absentee-ballot-investigation-18336339.php
Three tied to Joe Ganim's 2019 Bridgeport mayoral campaign recommended for criminal charges
Ken Dixon
Brian Lockhart
Staff writers
Aug. 30, 2023 Updated: Aug. 31, 2023 11:29 a.m.
BRIDGEPORT — Nearly four years after a Hearst investigation into the alleged misuse of absentee ballots in the contentious 2019 Bridgeport Democratic mayoral primary that was narrowly won by Mayor Joe Ganim, state elections officials have recommended possible criminal violations by three people aligned with the mayor's campaign, including a member of the City Council, to the chief state's attorney.
The State Election Enforcement Commission, the regulatory agency that launched the initial investigation after a series of articles that cited voters who said they were steered toward voting for Ganim via mail-in absentee ballots, recently referred the case to Chief State's Attorney Patrick Griffin.
The SEEC investigators were hampered by the COVID pandemic, which hit the state in March of 2020 and delayed some in-person interviews. In June, the commission voted unanimously to authorize staff lawyers to refer "evidence of possible criminal violations undertaken."
Named in the referral was Alfredo Castillo, a member of the city council; Wanda Geter-Pataky, a City Hall employee, and Nilsa Heredia, all of whom supported Ganim.
The office of the chief state's attorney on Wednesday confirmed the referral. "The investigation is pending," said Alaine Griffin, director of communications for the Division of Criminal Justice, declining further comment.
Heredia, who was paid hundreds of dollars by the campaign to circulate applications for mail-in ballots in the 19-building P.T. Barnum apartment complex in Black Rock, testified in a court challenge to the primary results in the fall of 2019. She stressed that she did not assist voters in filling out their ballots, but provided them with blank applications and stamps.
The trial before Superior Court Judge Barry Stevens included testimony from voters who said that their completed absentee ballots had been collected by Ganim campaign workers in apparent violation of state law, and that applications for ballots were improperly distributed and mailed out with address corrections that should not have occurred.
The five-week-long trial ended when Stevens ruled that while the case uncovered some level of fraud as well as major weaknesses in the absentee-ballot system that were exploited in the primary, there wasn't enough evidence to overturn Ganim's victory. “In summary, the plaintiffs were successful in identifying very serious election law violations, but the heat of this evidence is not hot enough to vacate the entire primary in the manner they sought,” Stevens said in a statement from the bench at the trial's conclusion. The general election, which Ganim easily won in the heavily Democratic city, took place five days later.
Castillo, who is awaiting a scheduled December trial on second-degree breach of peace and second-degree threatening in connection with an alleged confrontation with a city department head two years ago, first disconnected a phone call from a reporter on Wednesday morning, then did not answer his phone several times. He also did not immediately respond to a text message requesting comment.
Castillo and his council colleague, Fred Hodges, were both endorsed by the Democratic Town Committee at its July 25th convention. Each of Bridgeport’s ten council districts has two seats. Castillo and Hodges are being challenged in the Sept. 12 party primary by Rigoberto Giusti and Carmen Nieves. The two top voter-getters will continue on to the November general election.
Reached on Wednesday morning, Geter-Pataky said she was not aware of the results of the SEEC investigation or the criminal referral and would be contacting a lawyer. “As far as I’m concerned I didn’t do anything wrong. I work and I do things according to the law," she said, declining further comment.
There was no immediate response Wednesday from Ganim’s 2023 reelection campaign, but Moore, who failed this year to petition her way onto the Sept. 12 primary ballot with Ganim and fellow Democrat John Gomes, said she was robbed of the 2019 victory.
..........................
Here's a more recent piece on the same story:
https://ctmirror.org/2023/09/16/ct-bridgeport-joe-ganim-john-gomes-election-tampering-primary/#:~:text=Hours%20after%20John%20Gomes'%20campaign,the%20actions%20in%20the%20footage.