By NANCY WEST, InDepthNH.org
BRENTWOOD – Geno Marconi of Stratham pleaded not guilty Wednesday to witness tampering and destroying evidence as director of the state Division of Ports and Harbors and argued for less restrictive bail conditions in Rockingham Superior Court.
Richard Samdperil, representing Marconi, 73, argued against the state Attorney General’s bail recommendation that Marconi not be allowed contact with any member of the Pease Development Authority board or employees of the Division of Ports and Harbors, which is overseen by the PDA.
Assistant Attorney General Dan Jimenez told Judge Andrew Schulman those individuals are likely to be witnesses at Marconi’s trial.
Jimenez said the state only wanted a no contact order, which would not cover incidental meetings, not a stay away order, but Samdperil said it would be unusual at this stage in the proceedings to be bound by a no contact order because someone was a potential witness.
“Mr. Marconi has pled not guilty to all of the charges and is presumed innocent,” Samdperil said.
The defense has no problem with a no contact order for the individual named in the indictment (Neil Levesque) or Bradley Cook, who was also indicted, or Stephen Duprey, chairman of the Pease Development Authority board. Levesque, who is also the director of the Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College, is the complaining witness in one of the indictments against Marconi.
Why there needs to be a no contact order with the others is a mystery to the defense, Samdperil said.
“The real problem here is our client is a 73 year old man with no prior criminal history” his life spent working and living on the Seacoast so he is bound to come across potential witnesses, Samdperil said.
Marconi’s bail included personal recognizance meaning he promised to show up at hearings, but didn’t have to put up any money. Marconi was placed on administrative leave in April and his wife, state Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi was put on paid leave from the court in July.
Hantz Marconi has also been indicted separately for allegedly asking Gov. Chris Sununu to interfere with Attorney General John Formella’s investigation into her husband, calling it “petty” and politically motivated, and is accused of also asking for help from Duprey.
Geno Marconi was indicted for allegedly falsifying physical evidence by deleting a voicemail/and or voicemails from a phone on April 22. He was also indicted for retaliating against Neil Levesque by providing confidential motor vehicle records pertaining to Levesque to Bradley Cook, in violation of the Driver Privacy Act. After the hearing Wednesday, Jimenez declined to explain more about the motor vehicle record except to say more information about it would be coming out at upcoming hearings.
Bradley Cook of Hampton, who was until recently the chairman of the Division of Ports and Harbors Advisory Council, waived his arraignment. Cook, who before he was indicted spoke out in favor of Marconi, was indicted for perjury for allegedly making a false statement to the grand jury by saying he did not communicate with/and or receive materials from Geno Marconi relating to Neil Levesque’s pier permit.
At Wednesday’s bail hearing, Judge Schulman said Marconi wouldn’t be in violation of a no contact order for simply shopping at the same time at the same grocery store as one of the witnesses.
“That’s a little different from being at a social event and buying each other drinks…,” Schulman said.
But Samdperil said there are cases that come before the court every day where there are five, 10, 20 witnesses that are not named as prohibited contacts.
“This is the exception…
“All we’re asking for is to be treated like every other case,” Samdperil said.
Schulman modified the order limiting no contact to Levesque, Cook and Duprey, but said if a witness were to tell the prosecutor or victim advocate that he or she wanted no contact with Marconi, “That means no contact.”
If witnesses weren’t opposed to having contact, that would still mean that Marconi cannot discuss the case with them, Schulman said.
Justice Hantz Marconi is scheduled to appear in Merrimack County Superior Court on Dec. 2.
Read InDepthNH.org’s previous reporting on the indictments against Geno Marconi, Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi and Bradley Cook here: https://indepthnh.org/?s=geno+marconi
