Four defendants scheduled to go on trial this week in Carbon County court opted to accept plea bargains offered by the district attorney's office and entered guilty pleas.

Jason N. Branch, 36, of Nesquehoning, was set to go on trial Tuesday with a jury panel in place when he decided to enter a guilty plea to two counts of harassment, as summary offenses, with the commonwealth dropping a simple assault charge.Branch was charged by Nesquehoning police for an incident on Sept. 13, 2015, on West Catawissa Street.Judge Joseph J. Matika accepted the pleas and imposed fines totaling $200 and costs.Akmed B. Greene, 24, of Philadelphia, entered a guilty plea to one count of possession of drug paraphernalia with a second count of possession dropped. Green was arrested on May 18, 2015, following a traffic stop along Interstate 80 in East Side Borough by state police at Fern Ridge.Matika imposed a fine of $300 and costs.Richard Paul Sokoloff, 47, of Lehighton, entered a plea to a summary offense of disorderly conduct. He was arrested on March 17, 2015, in the area of 58 Horseshoe Lane, East Penn Township, by state police at Lehighton. Dropped were charges of defiant trespass by actual communication and confined within premises of the owner. Sokoloff was charged with a violation of the state dog laws concerning letting dogs run unleashed.Matika imposed a fine of $250 and costs.Kwesi Harris, 31, of Brooklyn, New York, pleaded to one count of possession of drug paraphernalia with a charge of possession of a small amount of marijuana dropped. He was arrested on April 24 along I-80 in Kidder Township following a traffic stop by state police at Fern Ridge.Matika imposed a fine of $100 and costs.