Former Ports Director Marconi Wants Taxpayers To Pick Up His Legal Tab

By Damien Fisher, NH Journal

Convicted former Ports Director Geno Marconi isn’t done causing headaches for the state. He now wants the courts to force him onto the Executive Council agenda so he can argue for legal assistance.

Marconi’s lawyer, Arnold Rosenblatt, filed a writ of mandamus Wednesday in Merrimack County Superior Court in Concord, demanding a hearing before the Executive Council and saying Marconi’s rights are being denied by Gov. Kelly Ayotte and Attorney General John Formella’s office.

Marconi is a named defendant in the civil lawsuit brought by the owners of the Rye Harbor Lobster Pound, Sylvia Cheever and Nathan Hansom. Cheever and Hansom claim Marconi, as director of the New Hampshire Division of Ports and Harbors, targeted them for unfair treatment between 2020 and 2023. But Cheever and Hansom also name several others as defendants, including the Pease Development Authority Board and Executive Director Paul Brean.

Under state law, Marconi should be indemnified and defended by the state in the civil lawsuit, according to Rosenblatt. The lawsuit concerns actions he took as a state employee on behalf of the PDA.

“The allegations against Mr. Marconi in the Civil Action arise exclusively from his actions in his official capacity as Director of the DPH. The Civil Action concerns the PDA and DPH’s regulation of a commercial establishment located at the Rye Harbor State Marine Facility, which is a matter squarely within the scope of the Director’s statutory responsibilities,” Rosenblatt wrote.

The Cheever and Hansom lawsuit was filed in January of last year, and Marconi requested that the state provide his defense. But Formella’s office refused, citing allegations concerning Marconi made during a secret grand jury session, Rosenblatt wrote. Those allegations, and the prolonged scandal, may explain the state’s response to Marconi’s appeal.

Under state law, RSA 99-D, state employees denied legal counsel can appeal to the governor and Executive Council, and Marconi made his appeal in April 2025. Ayotte’s office took a year before rejecting it this April. She is also refusing to put it on the council agenda.

“As I have indicated to you previously, the Governor controls the agenda of items considered by the Executive Council. That means that petitions such as those under 99-D:7 are put on the agenda to appear before the Council only with the exercise of the Governor’s discretion. In this case, given her denial of the appeal, there is no further consideration of this petition by Governor and Council,” wrote Myles Matteson, Ayotte’s legal counsel.

But Marconi has the right to appeal to both the governor and the council, Rosenblatt wrote.

“Mr. Marconi has a clear legal right to have his petition presented to and acted upon by the Governor and the Executive Council, and the Respondents have a corresponding non-discretionary legal duty to do so,” Rosenblatt wrote.

It should come as no surprise that people in Ayotte’s office and in the Department of Justice are less than eager to lend Marconi a hand.

Marconi pleaded guilty last year to a misdemeanor count of violating the state’s Driver Privacy Act, closing out the convoluted and protracted scandal that saw his wife, former New Hampshire Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi, also charged with crimes. He served no jail time, paid a $2,000 fine, and retired as director of the New Hampshire Division of Ports and Harbors.

Hantz Marconi pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor for allegedly having an inappropriate conversation with Gov. Chris Sununu about her husband’s then-pending case. She paid a $1,200 fine, kept her law license, and returned to her position on the court. Hantz Marconi retired in February.

The Marconi drama began in April 2024, when he was placed on leave as the criminal investigation was underway. According to Rosenblatt’s documents filed in court, Cheever and Hansom’s complaints were part of the investigation, as were many other lurid accusations of corruption by Marconi.

Hantz Marconi initially responded by recusing herself from all Supreme Court cases involving the DOJ. But she became frustrated sitting out significant legal questions and spoke to Sununu in June 2024.

When Formella learned about that conversation, he began his own investigation into Hantz Marconi, and she was suspended from the bench. Sununu told Formella that, at the time, he did not think Hantz Marconi had done anything wrong.

Hantz Marconi was indicted in October 2024 on felony charges for allegedly attempting to pressure Sununu illegally. Geno Marconi was also indicted, but not for anything directly related to corruption or the Rye Harbor Lobster Pound.

Marconi allegedly obtained the vehicle registration information of PDA Vice Chair Neil Levesque and shared it with Harbor Advisory Board Chair Bradley Cook. It is not clear what, if anything, Marconi and Cook intended to do with the registrations, which Levesque had submitted as part of his pier permit application. The state alleges Marconi was upset with Levesque, who had pushed complaints about his management of Rye Harbor.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.