Former Bridgeport city council Democratic primary candidate Ismael Sanchez filed a report with the Bridgeport Police Department alleging City Council president Aidee Nieves harassed him at his home over the validity of primary petition signatures he collected and threatened to blackmail him if he did not drop out of the race.

The report, dated August 19, states that Aidee, accompanied by City Council member Maria Valle, came to Sanchez’s property on August 14 and claims Nieves “was coercing [Sanchez] to resign from his campaign, threatening to blackmail him.” According to the report, Nieves accused Sanchez of forging campaign signatures and said she would report that to the State Election Enforcement Commission (SEEC), unless he resigned.

“Sanchez refuted the claim, stating that he had documentation proving otherwise.” the police report states. Police advised Sanchez, who at the time was also campaigning for City Council, to avoid further contact with Nieves and notify police if she returned.

Sanchez told Inside Investigator that Nieves and Valle came to his house around 5:40 PM on August 14 and asked him about “7 random names” of the 220 signatures that he had collected in order to get on the primary ballot. He said that while Nieves and Valle were there, Nieves told him that if he didn’t “get off” the campaign, she would report him to the SEEC.

“So she said to go to the town clerk and tell them that I don’t want to run for council in District 137 on August 20, and that she would pick me up herself and take me. I didn’t give an answer.” Sanchez said.

Sanchez also alleged that Nieves visited his cousin’s home because her name was among those Nieves accused him of forcing to sign his petition. He said his cousin told him that “a councilwoman came to her house and told her that if she didn’t [admit to signing the petition under duress] she can get in trouble.”

Days later, Nieves, filed a complaint in Superior Court seeking to have Sanchez removed from the ballot for the September 9, 2025, Democratic primary for the 137th District. Both Nieves and Valle currently represent the 137th District and were endorsed by the Democratic Party.

Sanchez, along with Isaac Dickerson, submitted petitions to run against them in the primary, but, according to Nieves’ complaint, signatures that the town’s Democratic registrar of voters signed off on as authentic were “improperly and inaccurately attested to.” Nieves alleged that Sanchez failed to have each registered voter who signed his petition do so in his presence and instead had someone else circulate the petitions on his behalf on three of the twelve sheets he submitted. Under Bridgeport’s rules, if one signature on a petition sheet is invalid, the whole sheet must be thrown out.

According to the decision, Sanchez was served with notice of the complaint on August 19, five days after he called police to report Nieves’ alleged harassment at his home.

On September 2, Judge Thomas Welch issued a decision that threw out a number of petition sheets, resulting in Sanchez and Dickerson being removed from the ballot for failing to collect the required number of signatures. Welch’s decision noted that neither Sanchez nor Dickerson presented witnesses or submitted evidence at the expedited trial.

The order resulted in Nieves and Valle no longer having to face primary challengers and the cancellation of the primary.

Sanchez alleged that Nieves paid witnesses to lie under oath in the court case and shared a text message thread allegedly from the father of Romero Jones, who testified that someone other than Sanchez asked him to sign his ballot petition, claiming his son had been paid to lie in order to fund a drug habit. He also alleged that Nieves followed him on another occasion when he was circulating absentee ballot applications.

Nieves did not return a request for comment about the incident, whether the documentation of forged signatures she referenced during the incident was related to the complaint she filed in Superior Court, or whether she has filed a complaint with SEEC.

Both Nieves and Sanchez have been named in a number of legal complaints surrounding the ongoing allegations surrounding absentee ballot improprieties.

Sanchez was one of four people accused of ballot harvesting, the mass collection of absentee or mail-in ballots by a third-party, in one of two complaints involving City Council member Alfredo Castillo, which SEEC recently voted to refer to state prosecutors. The complaint involving Sanchez alleges that Sanchez, Castillo and two others harvested ballots at Harborview Towers, a public housing facility, on October 11. Castillo has also been charged with multiple crimes in relation to his alleged role in ballot fraud during the 2023 primary.

Sanchez alleged Nieves was also present at Harborview Towers on October 11 and that they had an interaction where he told her to stop “harassing the people to let them choose who they want to vote [for]” and to do her job.

In 2024, Nieves was named alongside Wenda Geter-Pataky in a complaint SEEC referred to state prosecutors. The complaint alleged Nieves and Geter-Pataky “aggressively and repeatedly” asked a voter to collect their absentee ballot before the 2023 mayoral primary.

That primary was marred by controversy after video allegedly showing Geter-Pataky shoving ballots into a drop box emerged. The controversy resulted in a judge throwing out the initial primary results favoring incumbent Joe Ganim and a second general election being held after John Gomes, initially Ganim’s primary challenger, qualified as an independent candidate. Ganim was ultimately re-elected. Gomes has since asked legislators to consider funding for election security in a special session likely to occur in November.

Geter-Pataky has been arrested twice, once in February 2025 and again in June 2025, over her alleged role in absentee ballot fraud in both the 2019 and 2023 Bridgeport Democratic primaries. She was also arrested in August 2025 over charges she violated the conditions of her release by contacting witnesses expected to testify against her.

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