(The Center Square) — A New Hampshire judge is refusing to dismiss a criminal case against state Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi, who is accused of pressuring former Gov. Chris Sununu to drop a criminal case against her husband.
In an order issued Wednesday, state Superior Court Judge Martin P. Honigberg rejected arguments by Hantz Marconi’s lawyers that the court dismiss all indictments against her because she has judicial immunity and her conduct is otherwise protected by her right to free speech and to petition her government. In the 17-page ruling, Honigberg wrote that criminal conduct “has rarely been protected by judicial immunity.”
“At this juncture, the Court is not persuaded that such acts are entitled to judicial immunity,” he wrote. “While the Defendant argues that she was acting, at least in part, in her official capacity as a judge to discuss the New Hampshire Supreme Court’s docket with then-Governor Sununu, there are no facts within the indictments for the Court to conclude she was acting squarely within her judicial role.”
Hantz Marconi was charged in October with two class B felonies and five misdemeanors for allegedly interfering with the criminal investigation of her husband, Geno Marconi, former director of the New Hampshire Port Authority, who was indicted on separate charges. She has also been charged with five misdemeanors, including criminal solicitation and obstructing a government administration.
Lawyers for Hantz Marconi, a former Republican leader who has been on administrative leave since July, argued during a recent court hearing that she didn’t violate any laws and wasn’t acting with a “criminal purpose” when she “expressed her concerns” to Sununu about the charges against her husband.
But prosecutors allege that Hantz Marconi asked Sununu to intervene in the investigation of her husband, arguing the case stemmed from “personal, petty and/or political biases” and had “no merit” to the allegations.
Hantz Marconi allegedly told Sununu that the investigation of her husband “needed to wrap up quickly because she was recused from important cases pending or imminently pending before the New Hampshire Supreme Court,” the indictment stated.
Her husband, Geno Marconi, was charged with two felonies alleging witness tampering and falsifying evidence, as well as several misdemeanor charges, according to the indictments. Prosecutors allege that Marconi gave confidential motor vehicle records to another person and tried to cover up the illegal activity by deleting voicemails.
Bradley Joseph Cook, chairman of the Division of Ports and Harbors Advisory Council, was indicted on felony charges of perjury and giving a false statement to investigators as part of the case against Geno Marconi, according to state prosecutors.
“The grand jury determined that there was enough evidence to find probable cause that the defendant acted with the intent to interfere with the investigation into her husband,” Honigberg wrote in Wednesday’s ruling. “While the state will have to prove that intent beyond a reasonable doubt at trial, at this stage the court must defer to the grand jury’s determinations.”
