State prosecutors took a big step Friday when they charged five Bridgeport Democrats with more than 150 election-related crimes, but arrest warrants suggest the sprawling investigation into voter fraud and ballot harvesting might not end there.
The charges, which were leveled against campaign staffer Margaret Joyce, Bridgeport’s Democratic vice chair Wanda Geter-Pataky and city council members Alfredo Castillo, Jazmarie Melendez and Maria Pereira, are some of the most far-reaching allegations of election crimes in the state’s history.
The arrest warrants paint a picture of competing political camps that aggressively and illegally pursued absentee votes for Mayor Joe Ganim and Democratic primary challenger John Gomes — by forging signatures, registering non-citizens to vote, telling people how to vote, changing votes after they were cast and the widespread mishandling of voters’ ballots.
Officials with the Chief State’s Attorney’s Office, which is prosecuting the criminal cases, declined to comment about whether anyone else could be charged as part of the criminal probe.
Even so, the arrest warrants that were unveiled this week suggest that additional charges might be possible, given the nature of some of the 92 charges filed against Geter-Pataky.
The complaint against Geter-Pataky includes allegations that she participated in several conspiracies to take possession of voters’ absentee ballots ahead of that election.
Yet none of the other defendants who were charged last week are accused of conspiring with her.
Former Chief State’s Attorney Christopher Morano said the fact that Geter-Pataky is the only one currently facing a conspiracy charge would suggest the investigation is continuing.
“If they are charging her with a conspiracy, I would tend to think that there would be someone else involved that apparently hasn’t been charged yet,” said Morano, who served as Chief State’s Attorney from 2002 to 2006.
The state prosecutors leveled nine conspiracy charges against Geter-Pataky.
Prosecutors also named Noel Green, a Bridgeport city employee, in three sections of the warrant where they lay out Geter-Pataky’s alleged conspiracies, but Green does not face any charges.
In those sections, prosecutors note that Green, who worked as a custodian for the city, was twice captured on video surveillance footage helping Geter-Pataky place absentee ballots into a drop box outside the Bridgeport government center where she worked as a greeter.
Green could not be reached for this story.
The other examples of Geter-Pataky allegedly conspiring to take possession of people’s ballots are less clear about who else was involved.
One such example includes a suspected city employee, whose identity is unknown to prosecutors, who allegedly delivered absentee ballots to the government center, where he met up with Geter-Pataky in the courtyard. And another cites an “unknown male” who Geter-Pataky allegedly dispatched to pick up a voter’s completed absentee ballot.
One of the final sections describing the alleged conspiracies also references conversations that investigators had with two voters. Both voters told investigators that Geter-Pataky and Castillo instructed them how to fill out their absentee ballots and suggested that, if they followed their instructions, they would receive housing assistance.
The warrant states that both voters “were under the impression that if they voted in this manner with the absentee ballots, they would get housing.”
Some of the other arrest warrants also claim that prominent Bridgeport officials knew about absentee ballots being collected from voters’ homes or being inserted into drop boxes ahead of the 2023 election.
Joyce, the campaign staffer who faces nine criminal charges, allegedly admitted to state investigators during a videotaped interview that she collected multiple voters’ ballots in neighborhoods and at an “old folks’” building. And she claimed she did so at the behest of Ganim and Bridgeport city councilwoman Eneida Martinez.
“Joyce stated she was working for Eneida Martinez and Mayor Ganim, and expected to be paid $20.00 per hour,” the state investigators wrote in Joyce’s arrest warrant application. “Joyce said she stopped working for Martinez because she was not getting paid and eventually started getting threats.”
The Connecticut Mirror called Ganim to ask about Joyce’s statements and the other criminal allegations unveiled last week, but he referred questions to his city spokesperson and hung up.
Martinez, who is still serving on the city council, did not respond to a phone call and email for this story. But her attorney, John Kennelly, said his client never advised Joyce or anyone else to pick up a voter’s absentee ballot.
“Collecting absentee ballots is illegal, as you well know,” Kennelly said.
“She is very aware of the law. She has always stayed within the law,” he added.