One of seven defendants charged in the Bridgeport mayoral election scandals pleaded guilty to voting fraud charges Wednesday but will avoid jail time under a plea agreement.

Under the agreement, Josephine Edmonds, 63, would be sentenced to a three-year suspended sentence with three years probation when she goes before Judge Tracy Lee Dayton on Sept. 25. Edmonds was facing four felony charges, including witness tampering and illegal possession of absentee ballots stemming from the 2019 election.

After the hearing, her attorney Public Defender James Pastore said his client was just a small part of an election machine.

“Miss Edmonds was a minor player here and it is unfair that the people directing this aren’t being held accountable,” Pastore said. “Her actions had no effect on the outcome of the election.”

The charges against Edmonds stem from a case involving a family she knew that she assisted in filling out absentee ballots in the 2019 mayoral election and then taking and mailing them. Edmonds was working for Democrat Marilyn Moore in that primary election.

She also was charged with witness tampering when the family informed her they had been subpoenaed to testify at a civil trial after that election and she tried to convince them not to mention her name.

The only other defendant to appear Tuesday was City Councilwoman Maria Pereira who told the judge she wanted to fire her attorney Dean E. Popkin and get a new one.

Dayton granted the request after Popkin said the relationship with Pereira had deteriorated to the point he felt he could no longer properly represent her.

Dayton set a new court date for Pereira for Aug. 11 and ordered a new public defender be appointed to represent her.

Pereira is one of two sitting city council members facing election fraud charges for either misrepresenting who is eligible to vote absentee, fraudulent voting, taking possession of voters’ absentee ballots or being present while voters filled out those ballots. 

They were charged by the Chief State’s Attorney’s office last year for events that took place in the 2023 election cycle.

Council member Alfredo Castillo is facing five counts of misrepresenting eligibility requirements for voting by absentee ballot and five counts of being present when an absentee ballot applicant executes an absentee ballot and eight counts of possession of ballots and envelopes. Former council member Jazmarie Melendez is facing six felony counts.

The three other defendants are Wanda Geter-Pataky, Margaret Joyce and Nilsa Heredia. All had their cases continued until Aug. 13.

Dayton said previously that on that court date she expects plea negotiations to occur with the other five defendants to see if a resolution to the cases can be reached, otherwise a trial date will be set. 

Geter-Pataky, the vice chair of the city’s Democratic Town Committee, is facing 92 separate criminal charges, including conspiracy to take possession of multiple voters’ absentee ballots. 

Heredia is facing similar charges as Edmonds from the 2019 election but has not entered plea discussions with the state yet.

Her attorney Ken Krayeske had applied for accelerated rehabilitation — a form of probation — for Heredia but was denied by Dayton, who signaled the case was not going to be business as usual.

Dayton said that allegations of election fraud and voter manipulation were serious matters comparable to cases stemming from the embezzlement of public funds.

Meanwhile, Joyce, who lists no permanent address, was recently fined $1,000 by the State Elections Enforcement Commission for what they described as an “egregious” violation of state law for her actions in the 2024 Bridgeport elections. 

Joyce is currently facing nine criminal charges from the state’s investigation of the 2023 elections.