New Hampshire Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi will plead guilty to a single misdemeanor charge on Tuesday, ending one of the most high profile criminal cases involving a public official in recent state history.
Hantz Marconi was accused of attempting to solicit former Gov. Chris Sununu to intervene on behalf of her husband, Geno Marconi, the state Port Director, who was under investigation at the time for sharing confidential records. She has been suspended from the bench since last summer. A trial was set to begin in November that could have seen Sununu as well as Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald called as witnesses.
On Monday, though, a lawyer for Hantz Marconi notified the court that she would plead “no contest.” Under the terms of the deal, she will plead guilty to a single misdemeanor charge of criminal solicitation relating to the misuse of her position, with all other remaining charges dismissed. The single count carries up to a $1,200 fine, but no jail term.
Hantz Marconi is expected to enter her plea on Tuesday afternoon in a Concord courtroom.
A spokesperson for the Supreme Court declined to say if the culmination of the case could clear the way for Hantz Marconi to return to the court and resume hearing cases.
The plea deal ends more than a year of legal wrangling in which state prosecutors and lawyers for Hantz Marconi disagreed over numerous aspects of the case, including who may be forced to testify in a criminal trial, and whether Hantz Marconi was justified in meeting with Sununu in his office last summer to express her concerns about the impact her suspension was having on fellow justices and the operations of the court.
In an interview with investigators, Sununu said that while he found the encounter with Hantz Marconi “awkward,” he did not believe Hantz Marconi crossed any ethical lines in requesting favorable treatment for her husband.
Geno Marconi remains on administrative leave from the New Hampshire Port Authority, after he was indicted for allegedly sharing confidential motor vehicle records related to a member of the board of the Pease Development Authority — which oversees the state’s ports — in an alleged act of retaliation. Marconi has pleaded not guilty, and is scheduled for trial next month.
In addition to her contacts with Sununu, Hantz Marconi was also accused of attempting to influence Steve Duprey, the head of the board that oversees the Pease Development Authority, regarding the investigation into her husband.
(Duprey serves on the NHPR Board of Directors, but has no influence over the station’s news coverage.)
Hantz Marconi was suspended from her position on the court last July. She will turn 70 years old next February, which is the mandatory retirement age for judges in the state. Sununu first appointed her to the Supreme Court in 2017.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, state prosecutors agreed to classify her actions as not consisting of a “serious crime.” That distinction could be important as it pertains to Hantz Marconi’s efforts to regain her law license, which was suspended last October.
