Bridgeport City Councilman Alfredo Castillo was arrested for the fourth time Wednesday on a charge of illegally possessing a woman’s absentee ballot in the recent election.
Castillo, in the company of his attorney, Frank Riccio, turned himself in at Troop G in Bridgeport. Castillo was released on a written promise to appear in court on Friday.
Riccio said Wednesday that Castillo will plead not guilty and that the charges will likely be rolled into all the others that he is already facing.
Castillo is already facing more than 30 criminal charges involving abuse of the state’s absentee ballot system.
The first three complaints were related to the 2019 and 2023 Democratic primary elections in Bridgeport.
The arrest warrant supporting the latest charge alleges that Castillo visited Angela King in her East Washington Avenue apartment, told her whom to vote for in the most recent municipal election and took her absentee ballot away with him.
King told investigators a “Spanish man” told her that he was doing “the voting thing.” She said he wrote down her name, address and phone number and told her an absentee ballot would come in the mail.
King said when the ballot came in the mail, the man returned and helped her fill out her ballot at the kitchen table.
When investigators asked King “Did you vote for who you wanted to or did he tell you who to vote for?” she replied, “He told me,” the affidavit states.
She said the man then took her ballot and said he would mail it for her. The ballot was mailed to the city clerk’s office, according to the affidavit.
Investigators showed King a photo of Castillo, and she identified him as the person who had come to her door, saying, “100 percent he took my ballot,” the affidavit states.
The affidavit also states Castillo appeared on video footage from inside Harborview Towers, where the woman lived, knocking on her door, in mid-October.
Investigators weren’t as fortunate in the identification process with Anne Rodriguez, who lived in an apartment at the same address as King.
Roidriguez told investigators that a “chubby” man asked her if she had received anything in the mail. She produced an absentee ballot, and the man told her whom to vote for, the affidavit states. She told investigators she did not know whom she voted for because she followed his instructions.
But when investigators showed her eight photos, she did not pick out Castillo’s, the affidavit states. Instead, she picked out a photo of a man who had died in April of 2020, records show.
The new case was referred to the Chief State’s Attorney’s office by the State Elections Enforcement Commission.
SEEC has referred cases against 11 different defendants for election fraud from the 2019 and 2023 elections. All of those cases are pending except for that of Josephine Edmonds, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years suspended, with three years of probation.
Several of the remaining defendants, including Castillo and Wanda Geter-Pataky, are due in court on Dec. 11.
Riccio said that the state’s attorney’s office has been meeting with defendants.
“The state is beginning to make offers to people,” Riccio said, adding he expects some of the people to get deal offers, but not those “in the top tier” like Geter-Pataky and Castillo.