"The three Bridgeport city council members facing charges in an election fraud case related to the 2023 mayoral primary” show no indication they will resign, despite calls by activists to do so.
Three of the five accused, Alfredo Castillo, Jazmarie Melendez and Maria Pereira, were in attendance at a city council meeting Monday where activists with Bridgeport Generation Now Votes called on them to resign, shouting them down at times.
Pereira denied the accusations, which include one where she tried to enter a resident’s home without their consent.
“The allegation that I would be climbing into somebody's window while they're sitting there is so ridiculous,” Pereira said.
Pereira was the only person charged in the case,to speak during the public comment section of the city council meeting.
The results of Bridgeport’s 2023 mayoral primary were tossed out after a judge ruled the results could not be trusted due to the election fraud allegations lodged against campaign workers for Mayor Joe Ganim by his challenger John Gomes..
Melendez and Pereira supported Gomes, who was also endorsed by Bridgeport Generation Now Votes, during the primary. Ganim would later win a primary do-over in 2024.
Pereira faces more than 20 counts of either misrepresenting the eligibility for absentee ballots, being in the presence of someone as they filled out a ballot, possessing said ballots, and forging signatures.
Melendez faces six charges for misstating the eligibility requirements for absentee ballot applications.
Some of the accused, such as Wanda Geter-Pataky, are not elected officials, although Geter-Pataky is a vice chair of the city’s Democratic Party. She was not at the council meeting.
Democratic State Senator Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox, representing Trumbull, parts of Bridgeport and Monroe, said the council members should resign, and let the legal process play out.
“In cases where there are so many allegations against people, yes, I think it would be better to step down from a position until the matter is resolved,” Gadkar-Wilcox said.
Eneida Martinez, a fellow councilmember who supported Ganim, and is also accused of improprieties during the 2023 primary and largely pled the fifth amendment during her testimony, sided with Pereira and insinuated that Callie Heilmann, with Bridgeport Generation Now Votes, is a meddlesome outsider.
They highlighted Heilmann’s Hartford origins, and residency in Black Rock, Bridgeport’s wealthiest neighborhood which borders Fairfield.
Heilmann said the attacks are a distraction.
“I am not the chief state attorney, I am not any of the hundreds of voters that were interviewed by police investigating these crimes so they can try to make this about me, or about somebody else, but unfortunately for them, it's about their behavior and their criminal activity, and they are going to have to explain that themselves,” Heilmann said.
