Former state Sen. Dennis A. Bradley Jr. of Bridgeport was arrested Oct. 6 and charged with four absentee ballot crimes, according to Connecticut's Division of Criminal Justice. The division said a woman told police that a man she knew as Dennis Bradley opened her completed absentee ballot and told her how to change her vote for probate judge to his brother. Inspectors from the chief state's attorney's Statewide Prosecution Bureau arrested him on a warrant.
The primary, held Aug. 11, pitted incumbent Judge of Probate Paul Ganim against Mark Bradley, Dennis Bradley's brother. A complainant contacted Bridgeport police on Aug. 5 and filed a complaint with the State Elections Enforcement Commission the next day, saying Dennis Bradley came to her apartment, opened her previously executed absentee ballot and told her how to switch her vote from Ganim to Mark Bradley, the division said. The commission referred the case to the Office of the Chief State's Attorney. Ganim won the primary, Hearst Connecticut Media reported Oct. 6.
Bradley is charged with two counts of illegal possession of absentee ballots and envelopes, in violation of Connecticut General Statutes Section 9-140b(d); one count of being present when an absentee ballot applicant executes a ballot, in violation of Section 9-140b(e); and a fourth count the division lists as "Absentee Ballots," in violation of Section 9-359. That statute makes it a class D felony, among other things, to unlawfully open or fill out an elector's absentee ballot signed in blank.
"These charges are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law," the division said in announcing the arrest by Chief State's Attorney Patrick J. Griffin.
The arrest warrant cites home surveillance video of the encounter, Hearst Connecticut Media reported Oct. 7 after reviewing it. According to Hearst's account of the warrant, the video shows Bradley pulling at the corners of the ballot envelope and, after the woman said she had already filled out her ballot, telling her, "We can fix it. You can fix it." Hearst reported that the warrant also describes a second voter who told investigators Bradley told him to give him his absentee ballot and that he handed it over, believing Bradley would mail it.
Bradley's lawyer, Darnell Crosland, said his client was arrested "in connection to his work canvassing for the Bradley for Probate Campaign" and called the warrant's allegations "paper thin," Hearst Connecticut Media reported Oct. 6. "Mr. Bradley maintains his innocence and looks forward to having the facts fully and fairly examined through the appropriate legal process," Crosland said, according to Hearst.
Bradley already faces sentencing in a separate federal case. A federal jury in New Haven convicted him in March of defrauding Connecticut's public campaign financing program during his 2018 run for state Senate, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Connecticut.
Bradley was released on a promise to appear and is due in Bridgeport Superior Court, Geographical Area No. 2, on Oct. 21.
Sources:
Connecticut General Statutes, Chapter 151 (Sec. 9-359)