‘You know the routine.’ Arrest warrant states former state senator coached woman to hide ballot tampering
Former state Sen. Dennis Bradley told a voter to lie about changing her vote to his brother, according to an arrest warrant for new ballot-tampering charges. Bradley was previously convicted of campaign finance fraud in March and is awaiting sentencing.
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A former state senator from Bridgeport, already convicted of campaign finance fraud, coached a voter to conceal ballot tampering, according to a newly released arrest warrant.
“You know the routine,” Dennis Bradley told the woman, according to investigators.
The entire exchange was captured on surveillance video, prosecutors allege.
"WE CAN FIX IT"
Bradley was once a rising star at the state Capitol. But six months after he was convicted of federal fraud charges, he was re-arrested on two counts of absentee ballot tampering on Tuesday. Prosecutors allege that he pressured a woman to change her vote to his brother, Mark Bradley, a candidate for probate judge.
“He said, ‘I need you to change your vote from Line A to Line B,'" the voter, Alesia Dennis, told News 12 on Wednesday. “I picked it up off the table and I handed it to him. He persisted on opening it up and then he coerced me to change it. You can hear it in the video and everything."
Dennis’ indoor security camera caught the whole exchange.
“It’s right here. I just can’t get to the thing to do it yet,” Dennis said on the recording as she handed Bradley what appears to be an absentee ballot.
“No problem, we can fix it,” Bradley responded.
After changing her vote, Dennis claimed Bradley told her to lie about what happened.
“Once he instructed me to do that, then he said, ‘If anybody asks you, tell them you did it yourself,’” she told News 12.
MORE VIDEOS
Dennis posted the video online, which was widely reported by media outlets. But Bradley’s attorney said the one-minute clip doesn’t tell the whole story.
“They’re not showing us the entire video yet. All we’ve seen is what the media has spliced together for its stories," attorney Darnell Crosland said. “Once we get discovery, we’ll have the entire video, and I think the story will be clearer then.”
Investigators actually reviewed four additional clips from Dennis’ camera, according to the arrest warrant.
In one, Bradley allegedly told her, “So technically speaking, we’re not allowed to take these as you know. Just put it in the mailbox … They’re gonna be like, 'Who touched it?' blah-blah-blah, you know that you did on your own and nobody touched it. You know the routine.”
Crosland believes that Dennis changed her vote voluntarily.
“You have a right to change your vote,” he said. “From what I understand, is that the idea was that she wanted to vote for Mark Bradley and that was changed later on.”
Dennis insisted that she never intended to vote for Bradley’s brother.
“He is calling me liar, and he’s the liar,” she said.
Bridgeport has become a national poster child for absentee ballot fraud. A dozen campaign operatives, including three current or former city council members, have faced ballot tampering charges.
PREVIOUS FRAUD CONVICTION
Bradley is already facing a possible federal prison sentence for three fraud convictions. Prosecutors said he used “lies and half-truths” to “trick” the state into awarding him $84,000 in public campaign funds. Bradley’s law license was suspended following the conviction.
The judge in that case granted Bradley permission to travel to the Dominican Republic on Saturday for a family wedding. It’s unclear if the new charges will impact the trip – particularly after another former state official, Kosta Diamantis, fled to Greece while on bail.
Bradley will be arraigned on the new state ballot charges on Oct. 21.
