New Hampshire prosecutors are asking for breathing room as they prepare to try one of the most unusual double dockets in state history: the simultaneous criminal cases of former Ports Director Geno Marconi and his wife, Associate Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi.
The two trials are scheduled to begin just one day apart in November—his in Rockingham County Superior Court on Nov. 3, hers in Merrimack County Superior Court on Nov. 4. But Senior Assistant Attorney General Dan Jimenez and Assistant Attorney General Joe Fincham, the Public Integrity Unit prosecutors handling both matters, told Judge David Ruoff this week that the back-to-back schedule is unworkable.
“Simply put, the State’s attorneys cannot try the cases, and the witnesses cannot testify, simultaneously in concurrent prosecutions in the two venues,” the prosecutors wrote in their motion.
They are asking Ruoff to delay Geno Marconi’s trial until after his wife’s case is resolved.
Prosecutors argue that Justice Hantz Marconi’s case should take precedence, noting that she is currently suspended from the New Hampshire Supreme Court and her law license is suspended pending the outcome of the trial.
Her indictment includes allegations that she attempted to improperly influence the investigation into her husband. Witnesses could include some of the most powerful figures in New Hampshire politics and law, including Gov. Chris Sununu and Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald.
By contrast, Geno Marconi—who retired earlier this year while on paid administrative leave—faces felony charges of tampering with evidence and witness intimidation, as well as misdemeanors tied to obstructing government administration and misuse of state motor vehicle records.
His case is serious, prosecutors say, but less urgent to the functioning of state government.
Geno Marconi’s attorney, Richard Samdperil, has signaled his opposition to any delay but has not yet filed a formal response. Samdperil has already indicated he will challenge the admissibility of evidence and argue for dismissal of the charges.
Meanwhile, Justice Hantz Marconi’s defense team is pressing its own motions, including an effort to have Attorney General John Formella disqualified from the case. Her lawyers say Formella could be called as a witness regarding her alleged efforts to intervene in the probe. Merrimack Superior Court Judge Martin Honigberg has yet to rule on those requests.
The dual prosecutions are already burdened with pending motions, evidentiary fights, and questions of judicial conflict. Judge Ruoff, who was assigned Geno Marconi’s case in July, has not yet scheduled hearings on the defense motions there.
And whatever rulings are issued in either case could themselves trigger a cascade of appeals. Either side can ask for reconsideration or appeal to the state Supreme Court, where Hantz Marconi once served and where her former colleagues would be asked to decide.
The scheduling fight highlights the strain on the Attorney General’s Office as it navigates two high-profile prosecutions involving a retired senior state official and a sitting Supreme Court justice.
If prosecutors prevail, the first trial to unfold will be Hantz Marconi’s—an unprecedented moment in New Hampshire history, with a member of the state’s highest court defending against felony charges from the very justice system she once helped oversee.
Judge Ruoff has not yet set a hearing date on the state’s request to postpone Geno Marconi’s trial.
