Was "Fulton County election worker, Wanda Shaye Moss" arrested on election fraud charges in June 2024? No, that's not true: The woman shown in a social media post is Wanda Geter-Pataky, who was arrested and criminally charged in connection with the misuse of absentee ballots in Bridgeport, Connecticut. She is not Wandrea ArShaye ("Shaye") Moss, the woman falsely accused of voter fraud in Fulton County, Georgia.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) where it was published on X, formerly known as Twitter, on June 11, 2024. It opened:
BREAKING: Fulton County Election Worker, Wanda Shaye Moss has been arrəsted along with three other Democrats for Election Fraud.
Does that mean Trump was right again?
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Wed June 12 14:20:18 2024 UTC)
The post includes a video clip from Jesse Watters' Fox News show where he only refers to the woman in the story as "Wanda," never saying her last name during the two-minute news segment. However, he does identify the woman named "Wanda" as "allegedly stuffing ballots in Bridgeport, Connecticut," in the opening sentences of the video. She is not Wandrea ArShaye ("Shaye") Moss who sued Rudy Giuliani for defamation and, along with her mother Ruby Freeman, was awarded $148 million in compensatory and punitive damages from Giuliani by a jury, as reported by Protect Democracy (archived here).
A press release from the Connecticut State Division of Criminal Justice (archived here) on June 11, 2024, detailed the charges against Geter-Pataky and three other individuals:
Chief State's Attorney Patrick J. Griffin today announced that four campaign workers involved in the 2019 Bridgeport Democratic mayoral primary have been criminally charged in connection with the misuse of absentee ballots.
Inspectors from the Statewide Prosecution Bureau in the Office of the Chief State's Attorney arrested Alfredo Castillo, age 52, Wanda Geter-Pataky, age 67, Nilsa Heredia, age 61, and Josephine Edmonds, age 62, all of Bridgeport, and charged them with Unlawful Possession of Absentee Ballots, in violation of Connecticut General Statues § 9-146b(d) and other election-related charges. Three of the four suspects are also charged with Tampering with a Witness, in violation of Connecticut General Statues of § 53a-151.
Watters explains the case in the video, stating the details about the Bridgeport case and never conflating her with the Fulton County poll worker. At the 0:15 mark of the video, a woman's picture is shown. At the 1:06 mark of the video, Watters references Fox 61 News reporter Matt Caron, who is shown in the mayor's office in Bridgeport.
Caron published four mugshots on his X account (archived here) on June 11, 2024, clearly identifying the woman shown in the picture as Wanda Geter-Pataky from Bridgeport:
HERE ARE THE BRIDGEPORT BALLOT FRAUD ARREST MUGSHOTS: City Democratic Party Vice-Chair and city operations specialist Wanda Geter-Pataky, City Councilor Alfredo Castillo, and campaign operatives Nilsa Heredia and Josephine Edmunds. They will all be in court June 24th. @FOX61Newspic.twitter.com/7HJF1gcCZF
-- Matt Caron (@MattCaronTV) June 11, 2024
Wandrea ArShaye "Shaye" Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman were officially cleared in June 2023 by the Georgia's State Election Board of allegations of fraud at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, as NBC News reported (archived here).
Other Lead Stories fact checks on claims concerning Wandrea ArShaye "Shaye" Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman can be found here.
More Lead Stories fact checks on claims about purported election fraud in Fulton County, Georgia, can be found here.
