Pereira’s Menacing Tactics Against Senior Citizens Over Absentee Ballots Led To Property Ban – Police Probe Underway

Threatening to enter elderly residents homes uninvited, verbal harassment, menacing notes on doors, hurling insults, forging signatures on voting documents are some of the assertions made by senior citizens against Maria Pereira that led the management company overseeing public housing units in the city to ban the councilwoman from stepping foot on its properties.

“This has been added to the collaborative on-going investigation” against Pereira, according to police spokesman Scott Appleby.

“I have been getting complaints from across the community, from residents about harassment by the councilwoman,” says Jillian Baldwin, president of Park City Communities. “We try to fly under the radar to be good partners with the city. To be quite clear, we are not taking a political side we are taking action on behalf of the residents we serve.”

Pereira singularly delivered the most absentee ballots on behalf of John Gomes campaign for mayor in the Democratic primary won by Mayor Joe Ganim. Ironically, Gomes is challenging the results of the primary claiming absentee ballot abuse. OIB has reached out to Gomes’ Campaign Manager Christine Bartlett-Josie for comment.

Pereira represents the absentee-ballot rich 138th District with a high percentage of elderly housing units. She has harvested absentee ballots for years, something that rescued her from a primary defeat. She lost the walk-in vote handily.

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Last month PCC received a complaint, communicated by the daughter of an elderly resident of Fireside Apartments, that her mother’s unit had been illegally entered by Pereira. The daughter explained that she had authorized power of attorney on behalf of her dementia-suffering mother. She installed a Ring camera device that captured Pereira entering the elderly woman’s vacant home in search of an absentee ballot.

PCC forwarded a complaint of criminal activity to the police department.

Since that time PCC conducted several meetings, including a town hall session with about 20 residents and police officials in attendance. Seniors explained they had been continuously harassed and bullied by Pereira.

“For my entire tenure at Park City Communities, residents, vendors, Board members and staff have complained about harassment and bullying that say they’ve experienced from the Councilwoman,” Baldwin explained. “In addition, 20 plus residents have been in contact with PCC since the Councilwoman entered one of our resident’s units on September 7.

“Despite the alarmed and disapproving response from PCC residents, the housing authority, and community stakeholders it’s reported by our residents that she has not been deterred, nor impressed upon, to improve her interactions with the Fireside Community,” Baldwin continued. “In fact, residents of Fireside have called the Bridgeport Police Department on several occasions since the incident to report what they say is continued negative behavior. 

“Residents have reported that Councilwoman Pereira has threatened to enter their unit uninvited if they did not open the door willingly, has verbally harassed them, has left intimidating notes on their doors, hurled insults and made defamatory statements about them. Most concerning is that more than one resident has alleged that she forged their signature on voting documents. PCC has not filed any reports against Councilwoman Pereira. We forwarded a complaint we received regarding alleged unauthorized entry into one of our units. However, residents have reached out to the Police regarding this issue. PCC is not privy to what those interactions with police entailed.”