BRIDGEPORT, CT — Former state Sen. Dennis A. Bradley Jr. was arrested Tuesday, Oct. 6, on four absentee-ballot charges from Bridgeport's Aug. 11 Democratic primary, the race in which his brother, Mark Bradley, challenged Probate Judge Paul Ganim, the Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice announced.
Bradley, 42, of Bridgeport, was released on a promise to appear Oct. 21 in Bridgeport Superior Court, Chief State's Attorney Patrick J. Griffin said. Inspectors from the Statewide Prosecution Bureau served the warrant. His lawyer, Darnell Crosland, told the CT Post that Bradley surrendered at the State Police Troop G barracks downtown.
The warrant charges him with two counts of illegally possessing absentee ballots and envelopes, one count of being present while an absentee voter filled out a ballot, and a fourth count the CT Post described as unlawfully opening an absentee ballot. The charges are accusations, and Bradley is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
A voter's complaint
According to the Division of Criminal Justice, a woman reported the visit to Bridgeport police on Aug. 5, then took it to the State Elections Enforcement Commission on Aug. 6. She said a man she knew as Dennis Bradley visited her apartment, opened the absentee ballot she had already completed and directed her to switch her choice to Mark Bradley from Ganim. The elections commission sent the matter to the chief state's attorney's office, which investigated.
The complaint became public in early August, when Ganim's campaign gave reporters the complaint and a video of the visit, the CT Post reported. Mark Bradley said then that the woman had wanted his brother's help because she could not get the envelope open. "There was no type of coercion or force of any type of manipulation," he said at the time.
What both sides say
Crosland said the arrest came "in connection to his work canvassing for the Bradley for Probate Campaign." He told the CT Post: "Mr. Bradley maintains his innocence and looks forward to having the facts fully and fairly examined through the appropriate legal process." He called the warrant's allegations "paper thin."
Ganim, probate judge for 27 years and the brother of Mayor Joe Ganim, called the arrest "a sad state of affairs." "It undermines our electoral process," he told the CT Post.
Ganim won the primary and has no opponent in November. Mark Bradley qualified for the ballot on a third-party line and later dropped out.