An attorney representing one of the four defendants charged with absentee ballot fraud in the 2019 Bridgeport, Connecticut, mayoral election is disappointed that the state has not pursued his client’s boss.
Nilsa Heredia, 61, a supporter of Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim’s 2019 reelection, was arrested in June and charged with multiple counts of election fraud.
Heredia’s attorney, Kenneth J. Krayeske, argues that Heredia was a campaign worker merely following orders.
“The whole question here is, why isn’t Joe Ganim here with my client?” Krayeske asked, speaking wih The Epoch Times
“Mayor Joe Ganim benefited from this. To claim that he is ignorant of this is the leap of logic I’m not prepared to make.
“She’s not thrilled that her attempt at civic participation has resulted in criminal charges.”
Heredia appeared in court on Oct. 17 for a status hearing, during which Deputy Chief State’s Attorney Kevin Lawlor asked Superior Court Judge Tracy Lee Dayton to continue the case to further investigate and coordinate discovery.
Wanda Geter-Pataky, 67, deputy head of the city’s Democratic Town Committee, City Councilman Alfredo Castillo, 52, and campaign worker Josephine Edmonds, 62, were also charged and appeared in court along with Heredia.
“The campaign asked her to do things that were illegal, and she didn’t know they were illegal,” Krayeske said.
Heredia’s alleged campaign duties included distributing absentee ballot applications.
She was charged with improperly advising registered voters on which candidate to select on their absentee ballots, misrepresenting voting eligibility requirements by absentee ballot, tampering with a witness, and not providing the City of Bridgeport clerk’s office with an absentee ballot distribution list. Heredia admitted to not providing an absentee ballot distribution list.
Ganim did not respond to requests for comment. Geter-Pataky, Castillo, and Edmonds also did not return requests for comment.
All four defendants pleaded not guilty.
The parties are set to reconvene in court at 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 11.
According to Krayeske, Heredia was paid $15 an hour while working for Ganim’s campaign for a few weeks and earned a couple of hundred dollars.
A trial date has not been set yet because more charges against some of the defendants are expected.
“Once discovery has been exchanged, the state will apprise the case and then make my client an offer,” Krayeske said.
“If she accepts it, then there’s no trial. If she rejects it, then it goes onto the trial list.”
Lawlor did not respond to requests for comment about why Ganim was not arrested and charged at the same time as Heredia, Geter-Pataky, Castillo, and Edmonds.
“Basically, Lawlor said it was prosecutorial discretion,” Krayeske said.
Castillo is accused of failing to maintain an absentee ballot distribution list, misrepresenting eligibility requirements for voting by absentee ballot, and failing to sign as an assister on an absentee ballot application in August 2019.
Edmonds is accused of taking possession of the absentee ballots of prospective voters, failing to maintain an absentee ballot distribution list, and tampering with a witness.
In a separate but similar election fraud case, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled against granting arrest warrants for suspected voter fraud that were requested by Fight Voter Fraud, a nonpartisan, nonprofit election integrity organization.
The court decided there was a lack of standing to arrest Bridgeport residents Geter-Pataky and Bridgeport City Councilor Eneida Martinez.
Cameron Atkinson, the attorney who filed the lawsuit, has filed a motion for rehearing and is waiting for the Connecticut Supreme Court to rule.
The pleading asks the Supreme Court judges to review Connecticut’s history and tradition.
“We thoroughly presented that initially, and we think they should take a much closer look at it,” Atkinson told The Epoch Times.
“The justices looked to federal precedent in Massachusetts and all that can be persuasive, but what’s binding here is Connecticut’s history and tradition, and that was not a major part of their decision.”
