Co-defendant takes plea in election fraud case
Agreement requires testimony against wife of city councilor
SANTA FE — An Española man facing four fourth-degree felony charges related to his involvement in the city’s 2016 municipal election has struck a plea deal in which he will plead guilty to one count in exchange for his testimony against the wife of a city councilor whose trial is scheduled to start this week.
Dyon Herrera, 24, was indicted in 2018 by a grand jury on two counts of falsifying election documents and one count each of conspiracy to violate the municipal election code and making false statements relative to the election. Under his deal, he will plead guilty to violating the municipal election code, which carries a sentence of up to 18 months in prison and a fine of not more than $5,000.
He will testify against Laura Seeds, the wife of Española City Councilor Robert Seeds, who is facing 13 felony counts — 10 counts of unlawful possession of absentee ballots, two counts of making false statements and one count of conspiracy to violate the municipal election code — in a trial scheduled to begin Thursday.
Additionally, she is facing felony charges of intimidation and voter coercion, as well as a misdemeanor charge of disturbing a polling place in a separate case.
Herrera’s attorney, Paul Mannick, confirmed the plea agreement but declined to comment further. He took over as Herrera’s attorney this week after Laura Seeds’ attorney filed a motion to exclude Herrera’s testimony because his previous counsel, Yvonne Quintana, had once represented Seeds.
According to court documents, Herrera, who worked on Robert Seeds’ campaign, allegedly forged his grandparents’ signatures on absentee ballots in the parking lot at City Hall. Although the city clerk disqualified those two ballots, Robert Seeds beat incumbent Cory Lewis by just 238-236.
Included in that count were 94 absentee votes that went to Seeds and 10 for Lewis.
Lewis challenged the outcome of the election, but a district judge ruled that there was not enough evidence to support a fraud finding.