Judge gives top Bridgeport ballot suspects four weeks to accept plea deal
Wanda Geter-Pataky and Alfredo Castillo, a current city councilman, face more than 100 ballot tampering charges. They have until Aug. 25 to accept a plea deal or go to trial.
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Two suspects charged with hundreds of ballot tampering charges in Bridgeport now have four weeks to decide whether to take a plea deal, a judge decided on Tuesday.
Former Democratic Town Committee vice chair Wanda Geter-Pataky and current city councilman Alfredo Castillo must decide by August 25 whether to accept an offer from prosecutors or go to trial.
They are two of the most prominent faces of the sweeping scandal that made national headlines and forced a re-do of the 2023 mayoral election.
JAIL TIME?
Castillo’s attorney would not reveal whether jail time is on the table, but noted that a recent ballot tampering case in Stamford only resulted in a fine.
“I don’t understand why jail would be a viable option in a case like this,” said defense attorney Frank Riccio. “The state is considering all options that really are available to them. And we're considering all alternatives.”
Riccio did say that prosecutors have not asked Castillo to flip on others – including Mayor Joe Ganim, who both campaigned for. After his arraignment, Castillo pointed the finger at the mayor and prominent Democrats.
Castillo: “The lead bosses tell us to do the work, and we do and then we get criminalized. And it’s just not fair.”
Reporter: “Alfredo, when you say the ‘lead bosses,’ who is telling you to do this?”
Castillo: “The [Sen. Chris] Murphys. Everybody, all the Democrats.”
Reporter: “What about Joe Ganim?”
Castillo: “Yeah, he's our mayor.”
Riccio dialed back those statements on Tuesday.
“My client has a lot of feelings towards the motivations of this investigation, the motivations of this prosecution, he said. “The state sees it more as a black-and-white, letter-of-the-law type of case.”
BALLOT SCANDAL
Castillo and Geter-Pataky and Castillo worked for Ganim's 2019 and 2023 campaigns.
Geter-Pataky faces nearly 100 charges. In 2023, surveillance videos caught her stuffing stacks of absentee ballots into drop boxes in Bridgeport. Those videos led a judge to order a new Democratic primary for mayor.
Other defendants campaigned for challenger John Gomes, who lost the do-over election.
In 2024, Geter-Pataky’s husband insisted that she did nothing wrong.
“This is political. This is from sore losers that couldn’t function within the system,” Bryan Pataky told News 12 Connecticut. “They were allowed to do the same thing, and they just didn’t have the manpower and the experience behind it.”
Prosecutors accuse Castillo of filling out another man’s ballot for him.
“He just asked me to sign my name and then he would take care of it – handle it from there,” voter Kadeem Graham testified in a 2019 civil trial. “And that was the last I saw of the ballot.”
LOWER-LEVEL SUSPECTS
Five lower-level suspects have already accepted deals. On Tuesday, a city worker seen on video helping Geter-Pataky place ballots into the drop box pleaded guilty to two ballot tampering counts. Robert Anderson will avoid jail and serve two years probation as part of the agreement.
Former Bridgeport city council member Jazmarie Melendez was approved for a diversionary program in May.
Current city council member Maria Pereira, who campaigned for Ganim’s opponent, still faces 31 charges, including forgery and disorderly conduct.
“I’m going to win,” she told reporters after her arraignment in February 2025. “I’ve defeated the Bridgeport PD four times with zero convictions. I’m going to win this, too.”
