Education Bridgeport recently reported that, in 2005, Bridgeport Working Families Party chair Maria Pereira was charged with violating a protective order, criminal mischief and reckless burning. [Maria Pereira, Superior Court Records]

One of the judges presiding over Pereira’s case was none other than Barbara Bellis—the same judge that ruled against Vallas last summer. Pereira received a suspended sentence after she pled guilty to three lesser charges: criminal mischief, criminal trespass and violating her conditional release.

Bellis also ruled against the city of Bridgeport in 2011, when she ordered that Mary Jane Foster’s name be put on the mayoral ballot. This year, Foster hosted fundraisers for both the WFP and unendorsed Democratic candidates for Board of Education.

So here’s a question: Did Bellis’ prior relationship with the chair of the Working Families Party and previous animosity toward the administration color her opinion in the Vallas case in any way?