The Zumba instructor who was accused of running a prostitution ring from her dance studio in the seaside town of Kennebunk, Maine, pleaded guilty to 20 counts on Friday.

The felony charges against Alexis Wright were reduced to misdemeanors, defense attorney Sarah Churchill confirmed to NBC News.

The case against Wright, 30, gained national attention as allegations emerged of an extensive, detailed client list and videotaped sexual encounters. Prosecutors said that Wright had maintained records showing she netted $150,000 over 18 months through prostitution.

A subdued Wright answered "guilty" as the judge read the 20 counts Friday, The Associated Press reported.

She is due to be sentenced May 31. Prosecutors are set to ask for a sentence of 10 months.

Wright had previously pleaded not guilty to 106 counts, including engaging in prostitution, and had been expected to stand trial some time later this year.

Mark Strong, a 57-year-old insurance agent, was convicted of 12 counts of promotion to commit prostitution and one count of conspiracy to commit prostitution on March 6. Prosecutors said Strong helped Wright run a prostitution ring from her Zumba studio in Kennebunk.

Strong was sentenced to 20 days in prison and ordered to pay a $3,000 fine on March 21.

Lawyers argued over the admissibility of 577 red-hot Skype shots in Strong’s trial, with Strong’s attorneys saying that there was no way that jurors would be able to decide fairly after seeing the “extremely sexual” material.

“I think some of this stuff is going to horrify some of these people to the point where he won’t possibly get a fair trial,” defense attorney Daniel Lilley argued five days into Strong’s trial.

Strong struck an apologetic note during his sentencing.

“Mostly, I’d like to apologize to my wife and my sons and my entire family for causing so much harm,” Strong said at his sentencing, according to local paper the Portland Press Herald.

The guilty plea Wright entered Friday will allow her to avoid the embarrassing courtroom revelations Strong endured.

The case rattled the quiet town of Kennebunk, where Wright operated her Pura Vida studio. Kennebunk Police Chief Bob MacKenzie said Friday that he was “content” with Wright’s plea.

“This will put it to rest,” MacKenzie told the Bangor Daily News. “We’ll finally be able to move beyond this.”

Related:

• Accused Zumba pimp: It wasn't 'love' with dance instructor
• Man in Zumba prostitution trial gets 20 days, $3,000 fine
• Hundreds of Skype screenshots too sexy for Zumba trial: defense lawyer

Robert F. Bukaty / AP file

Mark Strong leaves the Cumberland County Court House in Portland, Maine, on Jan. 18.

A Maine jury needed only a few hours Wednesday morning to convict Mark Strong in the so-called Zumba prostitution case, in which he was charged with helping to run a sex business with his fitness-instructor mistress.

Strong, 57, an insurance agent, faced 12 counts of promotion of prostitution and one count of conspiracy in the trial in Alfred, Maine. No sentencing date was set, NBC station WLBZ of Bangor reported.

In closing arguments Tuesday, prosecutors argued that Strong was heavily involved in running the sex business with his mistress, Alexis Wright, out of her Zumba fitness studio in Kennebunk, Maine.

During the trial, prosecutors played video that they said established that Strong knew Wright was charging clients for sex and that he used hidden cameras and Skype to watch the encounters himself.

Defense lawyers argued that Strong was simply a foolish 57-year-old businessman so in love with the 30-year-old Zumba instructor that he made morally offensive but not illegal choices.

Strong has alleged that he was targeted because of his research into misconduct in the Kennebunk Police Department.

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Robert F. Bukaty / AP file

Mark Strong, who is accused of helping his ex-mistress run a prostitution business, wants Skype screenshots of her liaisons excluded as evidence in his trial.

An insurance agent charged with helping a Zumba instructor run a prostitution business thinks X-rated images of the liaisons are too hot for the jury to handle.

A lawyer for Mark Strong asked a Maine judge on Monday to exclude a whopping 577 Skype screenshots, arguing the prosecution wants to "drown" his client in "extremely sexual" and prejudicial evidence, the Bangor Daily News reported.

Joel Page / AP

Alexis Wright will go on trial in the spring for allegedly running a prostitution business out of her Zumba studio.

"I think some of this stuff is going to horrify some of these people to the point where he won't possibly get a fair trial," defense attorney Daniel Lilley said on the fifth-day of the trial.

Prosecutors contend the images found on Strong's computer of his ex-mistress, Alexis Wright, and a string of men show he was "actively involved" in the prostitution business.

Strong's attorney countered at worst it shows his client is a "voyeur."

The judge has not yet ruled on whether jurors can see the Skype shots, but signaled that she's inclined to allow them, the newspaper reported.

Strong, 57, who also worked as a part-time private eye in Thomaston, Maine, faces 13 prostitution-related counts.

Wright, 30, is charged with 106 counts for allegedly selling sex to dozens of men at her Kennebunk, Maine, dance studio and home. She will be tried later.

A police computer expert testified Monday that Strong deleted email from his computer a day after Wright's office and home were raided, but he seized the Skype images, spreadsheets and tax documents.

The detective returns to the stand on Tuesday, but only after the judge rules on a defense motion to throw out the remaining charges against Strong. Forty-six counts of privacy invasion have already been dismissed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Gregory Rec / AP

Mark Strong, right, talks with his attorney Dan Lilley on Jan. 25, after a lower court dropped most of the charges against him in connection with an alleged prostitution operation in Kennebunk, Maine.

Maine’s highest court has affirmed a judge’s decision to dismiss 46 charges against defendant Mark Strong, accused of helping a woman run a prostitution ring out of her Zumba studio in the resort town of Kennebunk.

All of the charges were related to alleged violations of privacy. Strong, 57, will still stand trial in York County Superior Court on 13 remaining charges, including promotion of prostitution. Dance instructor Alexis Wright, 30, has been charged with 106 counts, including engaging in prostitution. She is expected to go on trial later this year. Both Strong and Wright have pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Wright’s attorneys filed an amicus brief in support of Strong on Feb. 4 in which they stated that Wright had “a vested interest in the resolution of this appeal” due to the similarity of some charges between herself and Strong.

In January, Judge Nancy Mills decided to drop the invasion of privacy charges, which arose from allegations that Wright videotaped herself engaging in sexual acts with clients in her Pura Vida dance studio, as well as at two other locations. The alleged patrons “may have had a subjective expectation of privacy, but I can’t find an objective expectation of privacy that society would be prepared to accept,” Mills said in court last month.

Maine seeks to reinstate dropped Zumba prostitution charges

The decision may be a major blow to the case against Strong. The Supreme Judicial Court wrote that, “the circumstances of the court’s dismissal of the forty-six privacy counts present a reasonable likelihood that the state’s prosecution of Strong has been seriously impaired. The dismissed privacy counts constitute the majority of the criminal counts brought against Strong.”

Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court heard oral arguments earlier in the week, and affirmed the superior court’s dismissal in a unanimous decision on Friday.

“Places of prostitution and people who knowingly frequent them to engage a prostitute are not sanctioned by society,” Supreme Court Justice Jon Levy wrote in the court’s decision. “Accordingly, it is objectively unreasonable for a person who knowingly enters a place of prostitution for the purpose of engaging a prostitute to expect that society recognizes a right to be safe from surveillance while inside.”

Accused Zumba pimp: It wasn't 'love' with dance instructor

Strong’s trial has experienced repeated setbacks since jury selection began in January. It was expected that it would take a day to seat a jury, but that process stretched past a week before being stalled entirely when Mills dismissed the 46 charges against Strong. The Supreme Judicial Court was forced to make a separate ruling related to the case when a local newspaper filed an expedited appeal to open  the closed-door jury selection to the public.

Jury selection has been on hold pending a decision on whether or not to drop the 46 criminal counts.

On Thursday, before the high court’s decision, Strong’s attorney Daniel Lilley filed a motion with Mills requesting that she lift an order barring him from speaking to reporters while the case is ongoing.

Lilley wrote that the court “has not considered whether even such a blanket prohibition against discussions with the media will be effective in seating a fair and impartial jury, particularly one in which the jurors have already been instructed to turn a blind eye and deaf ear to media reports concerning this case.”

The man accused of helping a Maine Zumba teacher run a prostitution ring from her dance studio said in an interview with the TODAY show that the two had an “intimate” but not a “love” relationship.

Jury selection began Tuesday morning at the York County Superior Courthouse in the case of Mark Strong, 57, an insurance agent who has also worked as a private investigator. Strong has pleaded not guilty to 59 misdemeanor counts of promotion of prostitution and violation of privacy.

Dance instructor Alexis Wright, 30, has pleaded not guilty to charges that include 45 counts of engaging in prostitution, violation of privacy, and conspiring to promote prostitution. Her trial is not expected to start until May.

Justice Nancy Mills and attorneys for Strong and the state quizzed the more than 140 potential jurors called into the courtroom on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. Potential jurors filled out a 10-page questionnaire and were questioned about their views on pornography, adultery and prostitution.

“You may be shown explicit videos and photographs depicting individuals engaged in graphic sexual acts,” the confidential juror questionnaire asked. “Would viewing this evidence make it difficult for you to listen to the law and evidence and render a fair and impartial verdict?”

The questionnaire also asks jurors if they know or are related to any of 72 potential witnesses who may be called in the course of what is expected to be a weeks-long trial.

Zumba prostitution suspect: I 'did not' pay for sex

In his interview with TODAY, Strong denied paying Wright for sex or helping her promote prostitution.

“I have been harassed. I received threatening phone calls, threatening my life,” Strong said in the TODAY interview.

“This is a long and laborious process, most of which is not public,” defense attorney Daniel Lilley said during a break in jury selection on Tuesday, according to the AP. One-third of the potential jury pool was dismissed Tuesday, and the selection process continued Wednesday.

Joel Page / AP file

Alexis Wright is shown during her arraignment Oct. 9 in Portland, Maine.

Strong’s trial will commence as soon as jury selection is complete, Mary Ann Lynch, director of court information for the York County Superior Courthouse, said in an email to NBC News on Tuesday night.

The saga has kept the seaside town of Kennebunk, Maine, where Wright operated her dance and exercise studio, on edge.

“There’s still some of that puritanical New England left around,” Kennebunk store owner Will Bradford told the AP in October.

Court documents filed by Deputy District Attorney Justina McGettigan on Oct. 18 in the state’s superior court detail materials seized in the discovery process, including a number of computers, cameras and external hard drives.

Talks to strike a plea deal for Strong fell apart last week, the Boston Globe reported.

Zumba prostitution case heads to trial after plea deal fails

Rich Beauchesne / Reuters file

Alexis Wright 29, of Wells, Maine, is accused of running a prostitution business in Kennebunk.

A closed-door plea deal failed Friday for a Maine man accused of working alongside a dance teacher in running a prostitution business from a Zumba studio.

A judge ruled Friday that Mark Strong Sr., 57, will face trial on Tuesday on charges related to the prostitution operation he is accused of running with dance teacher Alexis Wright in her Kennebunk, Maine, Zumba studio, Seacoastonline.com reported.

Strong faces 59 counts of promotion of prostitution and invasion of privacy, while Wright faces 106 counts that also include tax-related charges, according to Seacoastonline.com. The two have pleaded not guilty.

Earlier Friday, Strong's lawyers had met with prosecutors and a judge about a possible plea deal. Now that the deal failed, jury selection for the trial begins Tuesday in York County Superior Court in Alfred, Maine.

The judge also ordered Strong's lawyer, Daniel Lilley, to stay on the case. Lilley asked to withdraw based on claims that his client can't afford to pay for a legal defense or to hire expert witnesses, The Associated Press reported.

At least a third of the 200 people that authorities say paid to have sex with Wright have been identified publicly. The release of the names caused an uproar in and around Kennebunk, a city of 10,000 about 85 miles north of Boston.

Wright is accused of using cameras, laptops and external hard drives to secretly record the encounters. A lawyer for Wright and a lawyer for Strong separately told NBC News earlier this month that there is no evidence to support claims of extortion.

An official told Seacoastonline.com last month that Wright's case was on a trial list for May.

NBC News correspondent Katy Tur contributed to this report.

From the archives, October 2012:

• Names' release in Zumba sex scandal puts innocent in spotlight
• Maine town rocked by Zumba studio prostitution scandal