Daughter of State Rep Charged in Alleged Staple Gun Attack on Political Opponent

A Chicago woman and her boyfriend were charged Friday with an attack on the woman's mother's political opponent, police tell PEOPLE.

The pair is accused of hitting the opponent in the nose with a beer bottle and shooting a staple into his forehead with a staple gun. The alleged victim wound up losing his race for state representative to his alleged attacker's mother.

The alleged assault on Bob Zwolinski, who was running in the Democratic primary for state representative from Illinois's 4th District against incumbent Cynthia Soto, occurred March 6, a week before the election.

He says it began when he saw two people putting up Soto signs at his campaign office in Chicago, he tells PEOPLE. Zwolinski, 30, says he told them to stop.

But, he says, the situation turned violent an he eventually ended up on the ground. "I hear her screaming, 'This isn't your territory, this is Soto's territory,'" he says.

He says the woman then allegedly smashed a beer bottle into his nose, breaking it, and then he felt what allegedly turned out to be a staple shot into his forehead. Zwolinski received six stitches in his head, he says.

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Jessica Soto, 26, was charged with three felony counts of aggravated battery and Bradley Fichter, 26, was charged with felony counts of aggravated battery and filing a false police report, Chicago police confirm to PEOPLE.

Soto is one of the representative's three daughters, her attorney Frank Avila told DNAinfo, but he said that Jessica "was not the woman involved in the incident."

Zwolinski says of the alleged assault, "I don't think was a hit squad, but they were intending to irritate me." He doesn't believe Rep. Soto had previously known about the alleged attack, he says. He cites the fact that she didn't say anything about it when the two saw each other at the poll site on election day. Rep. Soto did not return a call for comment.

Jessica Soto's attorney Frank Avila tells PEOPLE that not only did his client not swing a beer bottle, she wasn't even near the scene of the fight.

"Jessica was not in the altercation," he says "She wasn't physically in the area."

Avila also said he does not believe Zwolinski was hit with a beer bottle at all. "Where are shards?," he says, adding that he believes Zwolinski stapled himself in the head in an effort gain publicity. "He knew he was going to lose," Avila says.

According to Avila, both defendants have pleaded not guilty.