By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
The scandal surrounding New Hampshire’s Supreme Court goes further than the false statement signed by four justices, and could include criminal charges, according to attorney Christopher Gregory.
“There are potential federal felonies that need to be investigated,” Gregory said.
Gregory, the former Executive Director of the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline, is pushing to see something done about the New Hampshire Supreme Court. He’s currently trying to get United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to intervene through Roberts’ role on the Judicial Conference of the United States.
Gregory got involved with the New Hampshire scandal as he believes it mirrors the Colorado scandal that resulted in his ouster in 2024. The Colorado Supreme Court scandal blew up in 2021 when it was revealed former chief of staff Mindy Masias was given a multi-million consulting contract to buy her silence on alleged sexual misconduct within the Colorado court system.
Gregory is involved in a lawsuit over his termination as the Colorado court’s watchdog, and sees parallels between his experience and the situation in New Hampshire.
New Hampshire Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald resigned last month over his role in the 2025, $50,000 payout to former director of the Administrative Office of the Court Dianne Martin of her accrued time during a brief layoff. MacDonald’s Sept. 15 resignation was the first time the public learned the Chief Justice had been under a Judicial Conduct Committee investigation for the better part of a year.
Neither the Judicial Conduct Committee, nor the Office of United States Attorney for New Hampshire Erin Creegan would discuss the matter when contacted by InDepthNH.org, stating they could neither confirm nor deny any federal investigation. Creegan was counsel for the New Hampshire Supreme Court before taking the position as top federal prosecutor for the state.
The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, headed by John Formella, cleared MacDonald last year with its own investigation.
MacDonald reportedly helped Martin, his long-time confidante, ease out of her job as the director of the Administrative Office of the Court with an engineered layoff and a new job at the Office of Bar Admissions. The timing of the layoff meant Martin was able to collect about $50,000 in unused sick time and vacation pay. She also started the OBA job at a higher pay grade thanks to MacDonald’s intervention. The OBA position was also changed so that Martin could report to MacDonald, according to the JCC records.
After NHPR’s Todd Bookman broke the story about Martin’s job switch, the Supreme Court reacted with an October 31, 2025 statement claiming Martin’s job was eliminated due to a cost-saving restructuring. That statement was not true, and MacDonald’s signature on the false statement became one of the charges that forced his resignation.
“That press release stated that in early 2024 the Judicial Branch began ‘a comprehensive review of its administrative operations and costs as part of an effort to improve efficiency, better align staffing with current needs, and lower overall costs for taxpayers.’ The press release then states that Ms. Martin was laid off as part of that reorganization,” the JCC stated in a letter to MacDonald. “The press release contradicts other evidence.”
Records released by the JCC indicate Martin took the OBA job in 2025 rather than get fired. She had been under scrutiny for months before the switch due to personnel complaints and internal investigations into her management, according to the JCC.
That October 2025 statement issued by the Supreme Court and signed by MacDonald and Associate Justices Patrick Donovan, Melissa Countway, and Bryan Gould represents a serious problem for the Court, according to Gregory. Donovan and Countway were aware of the actual reason for Martin’s ouster, according to the JCC documents, and Gould likely knew as well.
Gregory said Donovan, Countway and Gould likely knew at the time they signed the false statement that MacDonald was being investigated by the JCC.
“[Judges] are not supposed to comment on pending or impending cases,” Gregory said. “These are some very basic rules.”
Donovan, Countway and Gould may now be under investigation by the JCC as well for their signatures on the October 2025 statement. The JCC has yet to confirm if that is the case.
Federal monies are hanging over the false statement signed by four justices, according to Gregory.
If Martin’s $50,000 payout and job switch is not part of the 2024 restructuring that the justices initially claimed, and which the JCC contradicts, it could be seen as a form of fraud, according to Gregory.
New Hampshire’s Judicial Branch would then be putting its federal funding in jeopardy. The millions of dollars in federal revenue New Hampshire gets for the court system must be accounted for through annual audits. Judge Christopher Keating, who replaced Martin as the court’s administrator, is the official who last signed off on the court’s most recent audit.