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Geno Marconi may be a free man after Friday’s plea deal let him off with a $2,000 fine, but Pease Development Authority Vice Chair Neil Levesque said the truth is Marconi ran an “organized criminal conspiracy” as New Hampshire’s ports director.

Marconi pleaded guilty to one Class A misdemeanor count of violating the Driver Privacy Act for allegedly obtaining Levesque’s vehicle registration and sharing it with Bradley Cook, the former chair of a harbor advisory committee. Levesque said he is the victim of retaliation because he helped uncover Marconi’s various criminal schemes.

“I was but one witness who uncovered what I believe to be vast wrongdoing by the defendant. I was subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury to testify to what I knew, and I complied with my duty to provide that testimony,” Levesque said in a prepared statement. “I was subsequently the victim of retaliation as I, and others, worked to disclose what I believe to be a sophisticated, organized criminal enterprise run by the defendant.”

Levesque did not respond to NHJournal’s request that he elaborate on the accusations, which Marconi’s defense attorney, Richard Samdperil, called baseless.

“After four and a half years of investigation, including going through his personal finances, his family’s finances, his computer and phone, and months of interviews and similar proceedings, the state has never charged him with a criminal conspiracy or enterprise. It’s a baseless accusation,” Samdperil told NHJournal.

According to Samdperil, the state agreed to drop five criminal charges, including two felonies, that Attorney General John Formella originally brought against Marconi. The one charge to which Marconi agreed to plead guilty stems from his attempts to determine if Levesque had a conflict of interest, Samdperil claimed.

“He now acknowledges the Driver Privacy Act does not allow that,” Samdperil said.

Marconi told Rockingham Superior Court Judge David Ruoff that he is taking responsibility for his actions by pleading to the misdemeanor. The deal includes the fine, a 30-day jail sentence suspended for a year, and the stipulation that Marconi resign his post as ports director.

Marconi and Levesque were at odds for years before the charges were brought, as Levesque raised concerns about Marconi’s management at Rye Harbor, among his other responsibilities. The PDA conducted a third-party investigation into operations, which did not result in any criminal charges.

Levesque claims he feared for his safety after crossing Marconi.

“When it became clear that the defendant abused his power to spy on me, I was advised by the Attorney General’s Office to be physically careful because the actual physical safety of me and my family could be at risk. I have spent the past four years looking over my shoulder as a result. It is difficult to express the degree to which this kind of fear occupies the mind and interferes with the activities of daily life,” Levesque said.

Levesque hopes the full story will soon come out, with evidence to back up his claims that Marconi was operating a criminal conspiracy.

Marconi was placed on leave in April 2024 when the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office opened an investigation. But Samdperil said the investigation started in early 2021. At the time, two people who worked at the ports complained about Marconi to Formella, who was then Gov. Chris Sununu’s counsel, according to court records. Formella was nominated to be Sununu’s attorney general later in the spring of 2021.

Court records reveal the state wanted to introduce evidence that Marconi was investigated for allegedly taking kickbacks and engaging in COVID relief fraud. He was never charged with any crimes related to those inquiries. Instead, the charges were all connected to Marconi sharing Levesque’s vehicle registrations, which are considered private records under the law. Cook, who received the documents, has his own trial set for early next year.

This month, Ruoff ruled that even vehicle registrations submitted as part of an official application are documents covered by the Driver Privacy Act. Levesque submitted copies of his car and boat registrations for his pier permit application, which Marconi oversees, according to court records. In a motion filed two weeks ago, Samdperil pointed out that the PDA itself continues to make car and boat registrations for pier permits public documents as part of the board’s regular meeting proceedings.

Formella said in a statement that Marconi’s guilty plea shows the law applies to public servants, no matter how powerful.

“Public service is a privilege and a responsibility, not a right. Every public official must be held to a high standard and comply with the law,” said Formella. “This case demonstrates that accountability applies equally to all, regardless of position or relationship. The Department of Justice will continue to enforce the law fairly and independently to protect the public’s trust in its state government.”

Formella issued a similar statement after Marconi’s wife, New Hampshire Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz, agreed to plead no contest to a single count of abuse of office in the wake of his investigation into her behavior regarding her husband’s case.

Hantz Marconi faced prison time for allegedly trying to get Sununu to intervene in her husband’s investigation last year. But Hantz Marconi’s plea deal allowed her to plead no contest to one Class B misdemeanor and pay a $1,200 fine.

She was back on the Supreme Court bench a week after her sentencing.

In both cases, the Marconis will not serve any jail time, and both are eligible for their state pensions.

With just days to go before his criminal trial was set to begin, Division of Ports and Harbors Director Geno Marconi reached a plea deal with prosecutors that will keep him out of jail — but cost him his state job.

His wife, however, remains on the bench.

Late Thursday afternoon, Marconi filed a notice of intent to plead guilty to a Class A misdemeanor for violating the state’s Driver Privacy Act. His trial was scheduled to start Monday on felony charges of witness tampering and falsifying physical evidence, along with two misdemeanor counts of violating the Driver Privacy Act and obstructing government administration. All remaining charges will be dropped under the agreement.

Under the plea deal, Marconi will serve 30 days in jail, but the sentence is suspended for one year contingent on good behavior. He must also pay a $2,000 fine and — most significantly — resign as ports director.

The Pease Development Authority previously claimed Marconi was already retired. But the 73-year-old disputed that assertion and held onto the post despite being suspended pending trial.

The hearing for the plea and sentencing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday morning.

Marconi has a history of controversial and sometimes offensive behavior. Still, he has allies who insist he’s the target of what they call “New Hampshire lawfare.”

“Geno has been harassed by the Attorney General’s Office for doing his job,” state Rep. Jack Flanagan (R-Brookline) told NHJournal after news of the plea deal broke. “He’s followed processes that have been in place for more than 23 years of service to New Hampshire. The AG has manipulated state law versus federal law on sharing driver’s license information — even when it was with the commission he reports to.”

The notice of intent to plead includes a telling line: “Def. shall resign as DPH Director prior to plea.” Legal and political observers who spoke to NHJournal on background say that phrasing was intentional.

“I think [Attorney General John] Formella is still in shock that Bobbi is still on the bench,” one legal insider said.

“Bobbi” is State Supreme Court Justice Barbara Hantz Marconi, Geno Marconi’s wife, whose own misconduct added to the state’s Marconi mess. She, too, faced multiple charges and, like Geno, struck a plea deal resulting in a single misdemeanor conviction.

The situation took a remarkable turn when, despite pleading no contest to abuse of office, Justice Hantz Marconi returned to the state’s highest court just one week later — a move made possible by the lenient terms of her deal with Formella’s office.

As a result, cases before the state’s highest court will be heard by a judge who is also a convicted criminal.

In Geno Marconi’s case, prosecutors allege he improperly accessed the vehicle registration information of Pease Development Authority Vice Chair Neil Levesque and shared it with Bradley Cook, the former chair of a harbor advisory committee.

The state contends Marconi was angered by Levesque, who had raised complaints about Marconi’s management of Rye Harbor. It remains unclear what, if anything, Marconi and Cook intended to do with the information, which Levesque had submitted as part of a pier permit application.

Cook is scheduled to stand trial on related charges early next year.

Legal and political observers are questioning how both Marconis managed to secure what appear to be lenient plea agreements. Many believe the answer lies in Formella’s reluctance to testify.

Marconi’s defense sought to compel Formella to take the stand. But that request was denied last week. However, Rockingham Superior Court Judge David Ruoff ruled that Marconi’s team could place Formella under oath if testimony at trial “opened the door.”

Marconi claims Formella initiated the investigation against him while serving as Gov. Chris Sununu’s legal counsel, and that he continued to pursue it after becoming attorney general.

Before her plea deal, Justice Hantz Marconi’s legal team had also sought to compel Formella’s testimony. Court filings show he was the original and sole investigator searching for evidence that she had attempted to pressure Sununu to intervene in her husband’s case — an allegation Sununu himself denied, according to court records.

The plea agreements mean both Marconis will avoid jail time and emerge with misdemeanor convictions. They also ensure that Formella will not be required to testify — at least for now.

Prosecutors want jurors to hear about Geno Marconi’s long and colorful — some say “controversial” — history when he goes on trial this fall, even though the former Ports Director has never been convicted of a crime.

Marconi, who ran New Hampshire’s Division of Ports and Harbors for decades, is at the center of a political scandal that has ensnared his wife, Associate Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi. It’s also created headaches for former Gov. Chris Sununu, Attorney General John Formella, and Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald.

On Thursday, Marconi’s attorney, Richard Samdperil, filed a motion in Rockingham Superior Court objecting to the state’s plan to introduce evidence of “prior bad acts” during the November trial.

Prosecutors had notified the defense in a recent letter that they intended to present jurors with a “history lesson” on Marconi’s past conduct. Samdperil said that would be improper and irrelevant.

“In this matter, the State does not offer evidence of criminal convictions, as the defendant has none,” Samdperil wrote. “Rather, the State seeks to introduce other extrinsic acts for some as yet unspecified purpose.”

Under New Hampshire law, so-called “404(b)” evidence cannot be used simply to paint a defendant as a bad character. It can only be admitted if it is directly relevant to the current charges and proven by clear and convincing evidence. Samdperil argued prosecutors have not met that standard.

Marconi’s years as port director were often accompanied by controversy.

In 2006, he faced an internal investigation after complaints that he accepted gifts from ship captains and made racially insensitive jokes. He was never charged, but apologized for slurs reportedly aimed at a Middle Eastern ship captain and others. Among them, calling a ship captain of Middle Eastern descent a “sand n*gger,” a “camel jockey,” and a “towel head.” He was also accused of calling someone else a “New York Jew with the chink wife.”

He later underwent mandatory sensitivity training.

The same probe detailed allegations that Marconi used his state-issued truck for personal errands, stored his private boat at a state dock, and accepted lobsters, pheasants, and other gifts from people who did business with the port. Pease Development Authority officials said at the time that Marconi’s actions did not violate agency rules.

There were also darker moments. A year after the 2006 inquiry, longshoreman Bill Roach — one of the employees who complained about Marconi — reported that shots had been fired at his Rye home. Investigators later found a fake headstone with Roach’s initials at the port and a cage of dead rats outside his house. Despite three separate police investigations, no one was charged. Marconi denied involvement.

Today, Marconi faces felony charges of witness tampering and falsifying evidence, as well as misdemeanor charges for alleged violations of the Driver Privacy Act. Prosecutors say he improperly obtained private driving records for “N.L.” — a reference to Pease Development Authority Vice Chair Neil Levesque — and shared them with Bradley Cook, then chair of the port’s advisory council.

Levesque had butted heads with Marconi for years.

Marconi is also accused of deleting a voicemail that investigators said could have been used as evidence against him. Cook faces his own trial on related charges.

At the time, Levesque was applying for a pier permit, a process that already required vehicle registration records to be submitted to the port. That has fueled debate about whether Marconi’s actions truly broke the law.

The Marconi case has expanded well beyond the Portsmouth waterfront.

Justice Hantz Marconi is on paid leave from her Supreme Court position and is facing a trial of her own, accused of trying to pressure Sununu to intervene in her husband’s case. Sununu told investigators he didn’t believe she did anything wrong, but Attorney General Formella — who initiated the probe — has been named as a potential witness and is seeking to avoid testifying.

With both a former port director and a sitting Supreme Court justice under indictment, the case has drawn in some of New Hampshire’s most prominent political figures and raised questions about conflicts of interest at the highest levels of state government.

Geno Marconi’s seen a lot of fishing expeditions as New Hampshire’s Ports Director. And now, his defenders say, he’s the subject of a new one — from the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Public Integrity Unit.

Marconi is charged with a slew of felonies and misdemeanors for alleged criminal acts that the Attorney General’s Office has been reluctant to describe in public. It turns out that they may have initially wanted to charge him with something else.

Rockingham Superior Court Judge David Ruoff disclosed this month that he was questioned by state investigators last year about a 20-year-old criminal case involving Marconi. 

Ruoff was recently assigned to preside over the criminal case against Marconi after Judge Andrew Schulman was transferred to Hillsborough Superior Court — South in Nashua. As a result, Ruoff filed a Rule 2.11 notice with the court disclosing his past encounters with Marconi and his wife, suspended Associate Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi. 

Aside from describing the occasional social gathering, one would expect judges, lawyers, and their spouses to attend. Ruoff’s disclosure contains some interesting history. Two decades ago, Ruoff worked at the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office and was part of the team that prosecuted former Harbormaster Roger Tropf, though Ruoff was not one of the case investigators.

Tropf’s alleged theft was initially spotted by Marconi, who was then the acting Ports Director, according to records in Tropf’s later employment appeal. A state audit of the port operations found widespread problems, leading to the ouster of Ports Director Thomas Orfe and later Tropf. 

Tropf went to trial in 2002 on charges of theft for allegedly submitting fake mileage reimbursement forms. Tropf was later acquitted at trial in May 2002, and Orfe took a deal and pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges of theft by deception. 

Marconi was suspended in April of last year as the Attorney General’s Office opened its investigation, but no one seemed to know why he was being investigated. Except, maybe Ruoff. Investigators tracked down the judge last spring to discuss the old Trope case, according to the judge’s disclosure.

“More recently, in spring of 2024, I was briefly interviewed by NHDOJ about my involvement in the Tropf/Orf prosecutions. While there were questions about Mr. Marconi’s involvement in the Tropf/Orf prosecutions, the present allegations were not disclosed or discussed. This jurist has no information or knowledge about the pending case, other than what has been generally published in the newspapers,” Ruoff wrote.

The charges the Public Integrity Unit used to finally reel in Marconi last October are not for anything related to Tropf and Orfe. Instead, Marconi’s alleged crime is that he violated New Hampshire’s Driver Privacy Act by providing copies of “confidential records” of one individual known as N.L. to another individual known as B.C.

N.L. is believed to be Neil Levesque, the vice chair of the Pease Development Authority and someone who clashed with Marconi over his management of Rye Harbor for years. B.C. is almost certainly Bradley Cook, the former Chair of the Division of Ports and Harbors Advisory Council, who is also charged with crimes for the alleged criminal mishandling of N.L.’s private records.

But Marconi’s lawyer, Richard Samdperil, writes in a pending motion to dismiss the charges that Marconi did nothing wrong. As the Ports Director, Marconi handled applications for pier use permits. Pier permit applicants are required to submit copies of their car and boat registration with the full application. At the time of the alleged crimes, Levesque was applying for a pier permit, according to Samdperil.

That means it is conceivably very legal for Marconi to have had copies of Levesque’s “confidential” driving records. It would also make sense for Cook, the advisory council chair, to at least be aware of the application. 

And, it now seems likely people in the Attorney General’s Office thought there was potential criminal conduct in the way Marconi handled the 20-year-old case against Tropf and Orfe. Instead, they may now be hoping the whole case isn’t a long walk off a short pier application.

State prosecutors claim they have witnesses who can prove Associate Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi committed crimes. But who those witnesses are and what their evidence is appears to be secret.

So now, Hantz Marconi’s lawyers are asking the court to force prosecutors to let them see the evidence and reveal their mystery witnesses.

Hantz Marconi has maintained her innocence since she was indicted last October on charges of using her position on the state Supreme Court to get the criminal investigation into her husband, Embattled Port Authority Director Geno Marconi, quashed by Gov. Chris Sununu. 

After their motion to get the indictments dropped was rejected, Hantz Marconi’s lawyers filed new challenges, including a demand for a bill of particulars. Such documents are detailed statements describing the alleged criminal conduct, as well as a description of the evidence prosecutors have to support the charges.

According to defense attorneys Richard Guerriero and Jonathan Kotlier, the state has so far failed to show why the judge is now a defendant. Hantz Marconi is charged with attempt to commit improper influence, criminal solicitation, official oppression, criminal solicitation, and obstructing government administration, among other crimes.

According to documents filed in the case, the charges stem from Hantz Marconi’s meeting with Gov. Chris Sununu and a phone call she conducted with Pease Development Authority Board Chair Steve Duprey in which she discussed the investigation involving her husband.

The problem, according to Guerriero and Kotlier, is that all of the charges against Hantz Marconi require proof that she purposefully engaged in criminal conduct in those conversations with Sununu and Duprey. However, the evidence provided so far by prosecutors undermines the state’s charges. 

According to interview transcripts, Sununu told investigators Hantz Marconi never asked him to get involved in the investigation.

“No, there was no ask, there was nothing (like) ‘Governor, I wish you could do this,’ or there was nothing like that,” Sununu said according to the transcript. “She was expressing frustration. Clearly not asking me to do anything.”

Present at the June 6 meeting with Sununu and Hantz Marconi was Rudy Ogden, Sununu’s legal counsel at the time. Ogden also told investigators the judge never asked Sununu to get involved in her husband’s investigation.

“[T] hat’s why I say in terms of her not asking for anything, it – it never was, it never went more than saying this needs to end quickly…Like it was never ‘it needs to end quickly’ and ‘Geez, if you talk to them you should tell them that,’ or ‘this needs to end quickly and I think you can do that.’ It was never anything like that,” Ogden told investigators.

Duprey told the investigators that Hantz Marconi called him to vent about the difficulties she was facing as a result of her husband’s legal troubles, and not to ask him to do anything illegal about the investigation.

“I think she was very appropriate in not trying to cross the line,” Duprey said.

When challenged on those statements during the hearing on Hantz Marconi’s previous motion to dismiss the indictments, Assistant Attorney General Joe Fincham claimed to have more evidence that would show a crime was committed, including several other witnesses.

“There were facts and circumstances leading up to that meeting, which we expect to be presented at trial, as well as what happened inside the room. Matters which (Sununu) and Rudy Ogden knew nothing about,” Fincham said in court.

However, Guerriero and Kotlier argue the state has not provided any of that information in the discovery process, and they want Fincham to reveal his cards. Without that information, they say they cannot fully prepare for trial.

“[T]o the extent that Attorney Fincham alluded to ‘facts and circumstances leading up to the meeting’ and ‘[m]atters which the governor and Rudy Ogden [know] nothing about,’ the defense has no notice of these allegations,” Guerriero and Kotlier wrote. “[I]f the State has additional information or other witnesses who allegedly will enable the jurors to infer the Accused’s intent, then that information must be provided to the Accused. Bills of particulars are necessary for the Accused ‘to prepare an intelligent defense.’”

Geno Marconi was placed on leave by the Pease Development Authority board last year when the Attorney General’s Office opened the investigation that would result in indictments against him, his wife, and his friend, Bradley Cook, in October. Geno Marconi is accused of getting hold of private driver’s license information on an N.L., giving that information to Cook, and destroying evidence during the subsequent investigation.

Geno Marconi butted heads with the PDA board and Board Chair Neil Levesque for years. Levesque accused Marconi of wrongdoing in managing operations at Rye Harbor. A lawsuit filed in January by owners of Rye Harbor Lobster Pound accused Geno Marconi of trying to drive them out of business to benefit friends and family who operate competing businesses. 

Geno Marconi has since retired from his position as ports director. His criminal trial is set for later this year. 

Lawyers for Associate Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz-Marconi say the state’s key witness, former Gov. Chris Sununu, doesn’t think she committed any crime.

Hantz-Marconi is charged with felonies for allegedly trying to get Sununu to end the criminal investigation targeting her husband, Ports Director Geno Marconi, during a June 6 meeting in Sununu’s office. 

But in a bombshell filing made public Monday night, Hantz-Marconi’s lawyers say new evidence demands the criminal charges against the sitting justice be dismissed. According to the transcripts filed with Hantz-Marconi’s motion, Sununu told investigators she never tried to get him to interfere in the criminal investigation.

“No, there was no ask, there was nothing, ‘Governor, I wish you could do this,’ or there was nothing like that,” Sununu said according to the transcript. “She was expressing frustration. Clearly not asking me to do anything.”

Defense lawyers Richard Guerriero and Jonathan Kotlier filed the transcripts Friday in Merrimack Superior Court as part of their effort to have the charges dismissed. The attorneys previously filed a motion to dismiss the charges for lack of a crime, to which the state objected. However, the state provided the transcripts to the defense before a decision on the dismissal was made. Guerriero and Kotlier say the state has essentially now proven there was no crime.

“[N]ow that discovery has been produced, it is clear that the defense was exactly right to ask the court to dismiss the indictments because they do not state any crime and because there is nothing in discovery which would inform a bill of particulars or an amended indictment such that the state could allege a crime,” Guerriero and Kotlier wrote.

Hantz-Marconi is currently on leave from the Supreme Court and has agreed to have her law license suspended pending the outcome of the criminal case. She maintains she never crossed any legal or ethical lines when talking to Sununu, an assertion seemingly backed by Sununu’s own words.

“I, I didn’t get the sense that, I didn’t get the sense that anything was illegal about the conversation,” Sununu told investigators. “No, I mean about halfway through the conversation I kept waiting, is she gonna ask me for something, or for something, or to do something, like and even imply that I should, ‘Governor, you need to dah, dah, dah,’ no, never came. So there’s technically no ask of me.”

Present at the June 6 meeting with Sununu and Hantz-Marconi was Rudy Ogden, Sununu’s then-legal counsel. Ogden also told investigators that the judge never asked Sununu to get involved in her husband’s investigation.

“[T]hat’s why I say in terms of her not asking for anything, it – it never was, it never went more than saying this needs to end quickly…Like it was never, ‘it needs to end quickly, and geez, if you talk to them, you should tell them that, or this needs to end quickly, and I think you can do that.’ It was never anything like that,” Ogden told investigators.

Geno Marconi was placed on leave from his position as Ports Director in April while the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office launched an investigation. That pending investigation forced Hantz-Marconi to recuse herself from hearing cases involving the Department of Justice, a significant part of the caseload for the Supreme Court.

Her frustration at sitting out 20 to 25 percent of the cases led her to speak to Sununu, according to statements filed in court. Hantz-Marconi has previously disclosed she first cleared the potential ethical problems of the meeting with Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald, who told her she had a right to talk to the governor about her concerns.

She is also accused of trying to get Pease Development Authority Chair Steven Duprey to intervene in her husband’s suspension, an accusation Duprey denied when he spoke to investigators, according to the Friday filing.

“According to Duprey, Justice Hantz Marconi ‘was calling, obviously, because I’m a friend.’”

Duprey told the investigators Hantz-Marconi understood he had no say in the investigation, and she never asked him to get involved. Instead she wanted to vent about the difficulties she was facing as a result of her husband’s legal troubles, Duprey said. 

“I think she was very appropriate in not trying to cross the line,” Duprey said.

Geno Marconi was indicted last October along with Brad Cook, the chairman of the Division of Ports and Harbors Advisory Council and a longtime fishing boat captain. They are accused of crimes involving leaking information about an unnamed victim to further an unstated motive.

Marconi illegally provided Cook with the confidential driving records of another person, known in the indictments as N.L., according to the indictments, and believed to be PDA Vice Chair Neil Levesque. 

Marconi also is alleged to have deleted a voicemail in order to hinder any investigation, the indictments state. Cook, for his part, is accused of lying to the grand jury when questioned about N.L.’s driving records.

In a statement, Attorney General John Formella’s office defended the decision to charge Hantz Marconi.

“The Merrimack County Grand Jury heard all of the evidence in this case and determined that there was probable cause to charge the defendant with the crimes for which she was indicted. This case will continue to proceed as required by New Hampshire law, and the defendant will be entitled to the same due process as any other defendant – no more, no less. We will try this case in court based on all of the evidence collected and not in the media using just a portion of that evidence.”

Prosecutors are more than two months late producing evidence against Ports Director Geno Marconi, his lawyers say, and they’ve filed a motion asking the court to force the state to start showing its hand. If not, the attorneys argue, an upcoming meeting on the disposition of the case should be canceled.

Marconi is charged with felonies in a scandal that’s also snared his wife, Associate Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi, as well as a host of other Granite State political heavyweights.

Marconi’s lawyers filed a motion demanding discovery on Dec. 20, writing that the delays are holding up the case. Marconi was indicted by a grand jury in September, and his lawyers asked for discovery on Oct. 17, according to the motion. Marconi pleaded not guilty on Nov. 27.

“Although the pretrial disclosure in direct indictment cases is typically due 45 calendar days after the entry of a not guilty plea by the defendant … it has now been over 90 days since the defendant was indicted and more than 60 days since discovery was requested,” lawyers Richard Samdperil and Joseph Welsh wrote.

But Rockingham Superior Court Judge Andrew Schulman isn’t pausing the case calendar. In an order issued Dec. 31, Schulman wrote that he “assumes” prosecutors are in the process of getting evidence, including any exculpatory evidence, to Marconi’s lawyers. The case is currently set for a dispositional conference on Jan. 14. 

Marconi is charged with two class B felonies – Tampering with Witnesses and Informants and Falsifying Physical Evidence. He’s also charged with four class A misdemeanors – two counts of Driver Privacy Act Violations and two counts of Obstructing Government Administration.

Marconi and Brad Cook, chairman of the Division of Ports and Harbors Advisory Council and a longtime fishing boat captain, are accused of crimes involving leaking information about an unnamed victim to further an unstated motive.

Marconi illegally provided Cook with the confidential driving records of another person, known in the indictments as N.L., according to the indictments. Marconi also is alleged to have deleted a voicemail message in order to hinder any investigation, the indictments state. Cook, for his part, is accused of lying to the grand jury when questioned about N.L.’s driving records.

It is known that Marconi’s bail orders prohibit him from contacting Neil Levesque, a member of the Pease Development Authority Board. It’s also been reported that Levesque, Pease Development Authority Chair Steve Duprey, and the rest of the board met with Attorney General John Formella and Gov. Chris Sununu in April to discuss the emerging criminal investigation against Marconi.

Marconi and Cook both opposed the PDA’s plan to redevelop Rye Harbor to make it more retail friendly, a plan that Sununu supported. 

Marconi was placed on leave in April, after the meeting with Formella. Hantz-Marconi was forced to recuse herself from Supreme Court cases involving the Department of Justice while the criminal investigation proceeded. Frustrated at being sidelined, Hantz-Marconi met with Sununu in July to talk about the investigation interfering with her ability to serve on the court.

That conversation between Hantz-Marconi and Sununu became the basis for the criminal charges against the associate justice. She’s accused of trying to pressure Sununu to drop the investigation, though she strongly denies that is the case. Hantz-Marconi denies she did anything wrong. In court documents her lawyers have filed, it was learned Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald told her before the July meeting with Sununu that there would be nothing improper with the conversation.

The entire Supreme Court has since recused itself from Hantz-Marconi’s criminal case, as well as from her state attorney discipline process.

New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella may owe his career to Gov. Chris Sununu, but that doesn’t stop him from prosecuting Associate Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi, according to a ruling released Wednesday.

Merrimack Superior Court Judge Martin Honigberg denied Hantz Marconi’s motion to remove Formella from the case and to dismiss all the charges against her, saying she hasn’t shown evidence that Formella’s conflict of interest is anything other than speculative.

“Even assuming AG Formella owes much of his legal career to Gov.  Sununu, the Court is not convinced that such a history requires disqualification without a factual basis to support a showing that AG Formella has been or will be unable to perform his statutorily mandated duty to remain impartial given his personal relationship with the governor,” Honigberg wrote.

Richard Guerriero, one of Hantz Marconi’s lawyers along with Jonathan Motlier and Oliver Bloom, said they may appeal Honigberg’s ruling. 

“We respectfully disagree with the judge’s decision and we may appeal it at some point. However, this was a preliminary issue arising in the earliest stages of the case. Rest assured, we will continue to fight the attorney general’s accusations on every lawful basis until Justice Hantz Marconi is vindicated,” Guerriero said in a statement.

Hantz Marconi is accused of trying to intervene with Sununu and Pease Development Authority Board Chair Steve Duprey on behalf of her husband, Ports Director Geno Marconi, who is currently under criminal investigation. Marconi is charged with releasing private driver records and destroying evidence in his separate case.

Formella has long been associated with Sununu, working as his private attorney before Sununu ran for governor, serving on his transition team, and later as his counsel in office. Unlike most states where attorneys general are elected by the public, New Hampshire’s is nominated by the governor.

Hantz Marconi’s lawyers argued to the court that Formella’s relationship with Sununu, and Sununu’s role as a key witness in the criminal case against Hantz Marconi, present a disqualifying conflict. They wanted a special prosecutor appointed and the criminal indictments thrown out, since Hantz Marconi claims a potentially biased prosecution team presented evidence to the grand jury. 

But Sununu said during press questions following Wednesday’s Executive Council meeting that Formella goes to the “nth degree” to make sure politics stay out of prosecutions. He also pushed back on an NHPR report showing he was at an April meeting with Formella, Duprey, and other members of the PDA board before Geno Marconi was suspended and the criminal investigation started. Sununu had previously claimed he knew nothing about the case.

“I think that article was complete garbage. I meet with the attorney general all the time. The fact that I had a meeting with the attorney general, (that) it somehow implies that there was something, some other part of the discussion that wasn’t being disclosed, is complete nonsense and awful reporting by (NHPR’s Todd Bookman). It was completely unnecessary and inappropriate,” Sununu said. 

He also made it clear there are two separate cases — Geno Marconi and questions about his actions at Pease, and Hantz Marconi and her alleged actions on her husband’s behalf.

“Justice Marconi is very different from the Geno issue, which is what this (story) was about. I know I’ve never talked to an investigator about that,” Sununu said.

“Put it this way, the attorney general has never questioned me,” he added.

Geno Marconi clashed with the Pease Development Board over a proposed Rye Harbor development that Sununu backed. While the board and Sununu supported spending $1 million in federal money on a raised shopping area at the harbor, Marconi and his co-defendant Brad Cook opposed the plan. The PDA backed off the plan in September following push back from the community. 

Geno Marconi is accused of leaking private information of an individual known as N.L. in the indictments. It’s believed that N.L. is Neil Levesque, PDA vice chair and the executive director of the New Hampshire Institute for Politics at Saint Anselm College.

Levesque was at the April meeting with Formella, Sununu, and the rest of the board.

Soon after Geno Marconi was placed on leave, Hantz Marconi was forced to recuse herself from Supreme Court cases involving the Department of Justice. Frustrated with sitting out important decisions, Hantz Marconi scheduled a meeting with Sununu to discuss the issue, according to court records.

Before she met with Sununu, Hantz Marconi discussed the matter with Chief Justice Gordan MacDonald, who was the attorney general before Formella. MacDonald reportedly told Hantz Marconi there would be nothing illegal or inappropriate in talking to Sununu.

“I think you can do that—You are a constituent and have concerns,” MacDonald told her, according to court records.

Add Neil Levesque, executive director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College, to the list of high profile names involved in the odd scandal surrounding Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi and her husband, Geno Marconi. 

Both Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi and Geno Marconi face criminal charges in a case that’s already roped in Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald, Gov. Chris Sununu, and Attorney General John Formella. The biggest mystery involving the Marconis is what, exactly, they allegedly did.

When Geno Marconi waived his arraignment in Rockingham Superior Court last week on his criminal charges, he was ordered to have no contact with Levesque as part of his bail conditions. Levesque is also the Pease Development Authority’s vice chair, the body that suspended Geno Marconi from his job as ports director in April.

Geno Marconi allegedly disclosed the driving records of an individual known as N.L. in court documents, and then later erased a voicemail message regarding those records. Geno Marconi’s codefendant in that case is Brad Cook, the chairman of the Division of Ports and Harbors Advisory Council and a longtime fishing boat captain.

Judge Hantz Marconi is due in Merrimack Superior Court Monday for an arraignment on charges she allegedly abused her office when she tried to get Sununu to intervene in her husband’s pending investigation during a June meeting.

Since she was indicted in October, Hantz Marconi’s lawyers have already filed motions to dismiss the charges, and to get Formella booted from the case. According to her filings, Hantz Marconi sought advice from MacDonald before she talked to Sununu, resulting in the Chief Justice telling her she had a legal right to speak to the governor about her concerns. 

Hantz Marconi wants Formella removed from the case due to his long-standing personal and professional relationship with the government’s star witness, Sununu. Formella was Sununu’s private attorney before becoming legal counsel in office, and then attorney general.