By NANCY WEST, InDepthNH.org
The defendant, the attorney general, the trial judge, the Supreme Court Chief Justice, some of the other judges and witnesses called to testify at state Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi’s trial have former Republican Gov. Chris Sununu – who himself has been called the “key witness” in the case – to thank for their current jobs because he nominated them.
Experts say there’s no conflict. It’s just what happens in a small state where everyone knows everyone else.
Hantz Marconi, 69, herself was nominated to the state Supreme Court by then-Gov. Sununu in 2017, even though she had no prior experience as a judge. Even though her conversations with Sununu and Stephen Duprey, chairman of the Pease Development Authority, are the basis for the indictments against Hantz Marconi, both Sununu and Duprey have told investigators she did nothing illegal.
Duprey was also appointed as chairman of the PDA by Sununu.
Hantz Marconi is accused of having conversations with Sununu and Duprey trying to interfere with a criminal investigation into her husband, state Ports Director Geno Marconi. Her upcoming trial is scheduled for Sept. 2, although her attorney Richard Guerriero has filed a motion to postpone for 60 days because of 10 as yet undecided motions and the likelihood he will file for pretrial review with the state Supreme Court.
“Gov. Sununu is the key witness in this case,” Guerriero said in one motion. “Sununu is both the most important witness to this alleged conversation that’s described in the indictment, and he is the person who as an official was allegedly improperly influenced.”
Sununu didn’t respond Wednesday to a message left on his phone.
Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald
As governor, Sununu was so hell-bent on getting his nomination of Gordon MacDonald confirmed as Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court, also with no prior judicial experience, that he held the post open after it was first rejected until after the next election when there were enough Republicans on the Executive Council to confirm MacDonald on March 24, 2021.
At the July 10, 2019, Executive Council meeting where MacDonald’s nomination failed by 3 to 2 with Democrats opposing him, then-Democratic Councilor Debora Pignatelli said she was seeking “a court balanced on the political-philosophical spectrum from liberal to conservative…”
Martin P. Honigberg of Concord was also nominated by Sununu and up for a vote that day as an associate justice of the New Hampshire Superior Court. But Sununu pulled Honigberg’s nomination off the table after the vote on MacDonald went south, which Pignatelli called “childish” at the time. Honigberg was later confirmed.
Honigberg is now hearing Hantz Marconi’s criminal case in Merrimack County Superior Court in Concord. Honigberg formerly served as chairman of the Public Utilities Commission, as an assistant attorney general and special counsel to former Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, now a U.S. Senator.
As the defense is trying to get Attorney General John Formella and his office recused from Hantz Marconi’s case and all of the indictments against her dismissed, the Attorney General’s Office has filed a motion to quash Formella’s subpoena.
Sununu nominated Formella to his current position after he served four years as Sununu’s legal counsel, and worked before that on Sununu’s campaign. He is on temporary hold-over status with Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte.
Two of the remaining three Supreme Court justices who were subpoenaed to testify by the defense were also nominated by Sununu, Justices Melissa Countway and Patrick Donovan. Justice James Bassett was nominated by former Democratic Gov. John Lynch.
Superior Court Judge Rudolph Ogden was approved by the Executive Council August 2024 after being nominated by Sununu. He was Sununu’s legal counsel and in the room in June for the conversation with Hantz Marconia that is at the heart of the charges against her.
There is no conflict of interest in Sununu’s connection to many of the witnesses, experts say.
Albert “Buzz” Scherr,” a professor at UNH Law, said: “No,” when asked about potential conflicts. “Each of the judges have a lifetime appointment so that means they are in no currently existing ‘debt’ to the guv. As to the other witnesses, the same logic applies, that is, they do not owe him nor does he owe them any currently existing debt.
“That said, fertile ground for cross-exam,” Scherr said.
Also on the Attorney General’s witness list filed last Thursday are Stephen P. Johnson, Thomas A. Defosses, and Robert J. Sullivan, all of the state Department of Justice, Hawley L. Rae of State Police, Paul Brean, Executive Director-Pease Development Authority, Madison E. Trites of the New Hampshire Insurance Department, and Margaret F. Lamson, who formerly served on the PDA board.
More Discovery Sought
Although the Attorney General’s Office has provided the defense with 10 tranches of discovery, in response to four written requests, the defense believes the State still possesses requested material.
“For example, since October of 2024, the defense has been asking the State to produce records of Sununu’s meetings with other judges or justices. In writing, the State has twice denied possessing such evidence. Yet, the discovery produced by the State indicates that such meetings occurred,” Guerriero wrote.
The motion gave the example of a document mentioning Sununu meeting with MacDonald during a swearing in ceremony, and Sununu acknowledging meeting with justices, including former Justice Gary Hicks.
Because MacDonald and the three other Supreme Court justices are expected to testify, if Guerriero seeks pre-trial Supreme Court review, a separate panel will have to be appointed.
Hantz Marconi’s husband, Geno Marconi, 73, of Stratham, was indicted for allegedly falsifying physical evidence by deleting a voicemail/and or voicemails from a phone on April 22, 2024. He was also indicted for allegedly retaliating against PDA Board Vice Chairman Neil Levesque, who is also the director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College, by providing confidential motor vehicle records pertaining to Levesque to Bradley Cook, in violation of the Driver Privacy Act. Geno Marconi is challenging those indictments.
Geno Marconi’s trial is scheduled for Nov. 2. Bradley Cook was indicted for allegedly lying to the grand jury investigating Marconi. Juror selection in Cook’s trial is scheduled for Jan. 5, 2026.
A hearing in Hantz Marconi’s case is scheduled for Friday. All of the motions filed in Hantz Marconi’s case can be found here: https://www.courts.nh.gov/media/requested-cases/criminal/state-nh-v-anna-barbara-hantz-marconi