Former New Hampshire Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi has resolved an ethics case against her, acknowledging conversations she had with a former governor and others during a criminal investigation into her husband had the appearance of impropriety.
Hantz Marconi, who retired from the bench in February after reaching the court’s mandatory retirement age of 70, will not face any discipline. The settlement agreement with the state’s Judicial Conduct Committee admits to a violation of the state’s code of ethics for judges, though Hantz Marconi maintains that she didn’t violate any criminal laws and sought no special treatment for her husband, former port director Geno Marconi.
Last October, Hantz Marconi pleaded “no contest” to a misdemeanor charge in a criminal case accusing her of using her influence to obtain information from then Gov. Chris Sununu and Steve Duprey, head of the Pease Development Authority, about the case against her husband.
(Duprey serves on the NHPR Board of Directors, but has no influence over the station’s news coverage.)
Both Sununu and Duprey told investigators they didn’t believe Hantz Marconi requested or sought favorable treatment for her husband, but Sununu, who appointed Hantz Marconi to the bench in 2017, said he found the conversation “awkward.”
While the criminal matter was resolved with a fine, and she was allowed to immediately return to the bench, the Judicial Conduct Committee announced it was also looking into Hantz Marconi’s conduct.
According to the committee’s records, Hantz Marconi complied with the probe and acknowledged that her meeting and conversation violated an ethics code that requires judges to promote public confidence in the courts.
The committee said justices need to act with “extraordinary scruples in both personal and professional conduct.”
But Hantz Marconi and her attorney, Richard Guerriero, continue to oppose how the committee summarizes her conduct, even in the settlement agreement both parties signed onto. They contend that the committee “overstates the seriousness of the violation” and inaccurately suggests that she asked for Sununu and Duprey to intervene on her husband’s behalf.
"We acknowledged the violation a year ago—that her meeting with the Governor could have appeared to some as being improper,” Hantz Marconi and Guerriero said in a statement to NHPR. “Our objections are to the lengthy timeline, the cost of the unnecessary process over the last year, and the factually incomplete and inaccurate summary report."
Private meeting with Sununu
Hantz Marconi met with Sununu inside his office in June 2024, while her husband was under investigation for leaking confidential motor vehicle records belonging to Neil Levesque, who also served on the Pease Development Authority’s board of directors.
According to Hantz Marconi, the conversation focused on the strain her absence from the court was having on the other justices. Sununu later told investigators that he wasn’t asked for any favors during their meeting, which was confirmed by Rudy Ogden, Sununu’s legal counsel, who was also present.
Hantz Marconi was forced to temporarily step down from hearing cases while the attorney general’s office investigated her husband. She said she spoke with then-Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald about a possible meeting with Sununu, and received his support, though MacDonald later denied knowledge of the meeting.
Duprey also told investigators that during a phone call with Hantz Marconi that took place shortly after her husband was placed on administrative leave by the Pease Development Authority, she did not ask for any favors.
State prosecutors brought criminal charges, however, accusing the justice of attempting to use her influence and position. That case was ultimately resolved with a plea deal that included nearly $1,500 in fines, but no jail time. By pleading “no contest,” Hantz Marconi did not dispute that the state had sufficient evidence to convict her, but she made no admission of guilt.
Geno Marconi also pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of sharing confidential motor vehicle records, and resigned from his position leading the state ports.
Hantz Marconi’s law license was reinstated, and she briefly returned to the bench, before announcing that she would not hear cases and only perform administrative functions until she reached the court’s mandatory retirement age.
Challenge to legal bills
While the agreement in the ethics case ends this phase of the proceedings, Hantz Marconi and the committee remain at odds over who should foot legal bills associated with the case.
Typically, judges are required to pay for their own legal defense during ethics probes, and cover the committee’s costs. The committee released records saying it “incurred significant expenses” in the Hantz Marconi case, though it declined to release an exact figure.
Hantz Marconi is challenging the imposition of legal fees, though, since the committee isn’t recommending she face any discipline, and acknowledged her infractions.
“Hantz Marconi should not be required to pay for an investigation which only confirmed what she admitted from the beginning,” her attorney argues.
The New Hampshire Supreme Court, or an alternative panel of judges, will now decide if their former colleague is on the hook for some or all of the committee’s legal expenses. The court will also need to sign off on the plea agreement, formally resolving the case.
