New Hampshire
State Supreme Court justice takes plea deal after accusations of influencing husband’s probe
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A New Hampshire Supreme Court justice pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor Tuesday after facing charges that she tried to interfere with a criminal investigation into her husband who ran the state’s division of ports and harbors.
State Supreme Court Associate Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi was indicted in October 2024 by a Merrimack County grand jury for two felonies and five misdemeanors. Under a plea deal approved by a judge on Tuesday, those charges were dismissed, and Marconi pleaded no contest to criminal solicitation of misuse of position, which is a misdemeanor.
Marconi had been accused of soliciting then-Republican Gov. Chris Sununu to influence the attorney general’s investigation into her husband, telling him that the investigation was the result of “personal petty and/or political biases.” According to the indictment, she told Sununu there was no merit to the allegations and that any investigation into her husband “needed to be wrapped up quickly because she was recused from important cases pending” before the court.
Authorities have not disclosed the nature of that investigation, but Marconi’s husband, Geno Marconi, has been charged with interfering with it by deleting voicemails and providing confidential motor vehicle records to a third party.
Geno Marconi, the director of the New Hampshire Division of Ports and Harbors, faces two felony charges — witness tampering and falsifying evidence — and four misdemeanors of obstructing government administration and violating driver privacy. Bradley Cook, chair of the port division’s advisory council, also was charged with perjury and false swearing and is accused of lying to a grand jury about Marconi.
Justice Marconi has been on administrative leave since July 2024. Geno Marconi has been on paid leave since April 2024.
“No person is above the law, and the evidence in this case required investigation and presentation to the grand jury,” New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella said at the time of Justice Marconi’s indictment.
“The decision to charge a sitting Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court was not made lightly, and it comes after careful and thoughtful deliberation. It is my hope that the public will be reassured that all individuals, including public officials, are treated equally under the law,” he added.
According to court documents, Marconi will pay $1,200 fine for pleading no contest and state prosecutors will agree that her offense does not fall under the definition a “serious crime.”
New York
3 former prison guards charged in beating death of handcuffed inmate go on trial
UTICA, N.Y. (AP) — Three former upstate New York prison guards on trial in the fatal beating of a Black handcuffed inmate took part in an act of “sheer, unimaginable brutality,” a prosecutor told a jury Tuesday.
Mathew Galliher, Nicholas Kieffer and David Kingsley are charged with murder and first-degree manslaughter in the death of Robert Brooks, whose beating by guards at the Marcy Correctional Facility on Dec. 9 was captured in part on body-camera footage. The trio were among 10 corrections officers indicted in February on murder charges or for lesser crimes.
Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick told jurors in his opening statement that they would view sickening videos of Brooks’ treatment by a group of guards, and that each of the defendants was “intimately involved.”
“They no longer were corrections officers. They were a gang,” Fitzpatrick said. “They took turns — collectively and individually — of punching him, kneeing him, pepper spraying him, choking him, pinning him down, cuffing his legs.”
Brooks was dead within an hour, before he even unpacked, Fitzpatrick said.
Brooks, 43, had been serving a 12-year sentence for first-degree assault since 2017 and was transferred to Marcy from a nearby lockup that night. The videos, which triggered widespread outrage, show officers striking him in the chest with a shoe, lifting him by the neck and dropping him.
Defense attorneys told jurors that prosecutors will not be able to prove their clients acted with malice or depraved indifference to human life, as the charges allege. The attorneys asked jurors to take careful note of their clients’ specific actions that night.
“The prosecution is attempting to tie Nicholas Kieffer to the actions of others, suggesting to you that he is somehow responsible via association,” said his attorney, David Longeretta. Kieffer applied a “minimum amount” of pepper spray to Brooks to gain his compliance, the lawyer said.
Galliher’s attorney, Kevin Luibrand, said his client has been charged with murder, in large part, for shackling Brooks’ legs to keep him from kicking.
“Mathew Galliher didn’t harm Robert Brooks. He didn’t hit him, he didn’t strike him, he didn’t encourage others to strike him, he didn’t deny him medical care,” Luibrand said. “He didn’t do anything that contributed to the death of Robert Brooks.”
Fitzpatrick, the special prosecutor, says Brooks died of a massive beating that broke a bone in his neck, ripped his thyroid cartilage and bruised several internal organs. He also died as a result of repeated restrictions to his airways, which caused brain damage, and choking on his own blood.
Fitzpatrick said Brooks was beaten three separate times as soon as he arrived at the prison, the last being the fatal beating in the infirmary caught on the silent body-camera footage.
A fourth corrections officer is scheduled to go on trial for second-degree manslaughter in January.
Six guards indicted in February have since pleaded guilty. Three more employees have agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges and are cooperating with the special prosecutor.
Fitzpatrick also is prosecuting guards in the fatal beating of Messiah Nantwi on March 1 at another Marcy lockup, the Mid-State Correctional Facility. Ten guards were indicted in April, including two who are charged with murder, in Nantwi’s death.
Washington
Judge blocks effort to change teen pregnancy prevention programs
A judge Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from requiring recipients of federal teen pregnancy prevention grants to comply with Trump’s orders aimed at curtailing “radical indoctrination” and “gender ideology.”
The ruling is a victory for three Planned Parenthood affiliates — in California, Iowa and New York — that sued to try to block enforcement of a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services policy document issued in July that they contend contradict the requirements of the grants as established by Congress.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, who was appointed to the bench by former President Barack Obama, blasted the administration’s policy change in her written ruling, saying it was “motivated solely by political concerns, devoid of any considered process or analysis, and ignorant of the statutory emphasis on evidence-based programming.”
The policy requiring changes to the pregnancy prevention program was part of the fallout from a series of executive orders Trump signed starting in his first day back in the White House aimed at rolling back recognition of LGBTQ+ people and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
In the policy, the administration objected to teaching that promotes same-sex marriage and that “normalizes, or promotes sexual activity for minors.”
The Planned Parenthood affiliates argued that the new directives were at odds with requirements of the program — and that they were so vague it wasn’t clear what needed to be done to follow them.
Howell agreed.
The decision applies not only to the handful of Planned Parenthood groups among the dozens of recipients of the funding, but also nonprofit groups, city and county health departments, Native American tribes and universities that received grants.
HHS, which oversees the program, declined to comment on Tuesday’s ruling. It previously said the guidance for the program “ensures that taxpayer dollars no longer support content that undermines parental rights, promotes radical gender ideology, or exposes children to sexually explicit material under the banner of public health.”
Texas
Trials delayed for 2 Uvalde school police officers
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The trials for the two former school police officers facing charges over the slow law enforcement response to the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, will be delayed, and one will be moved out of the city where the attack occurred, their lawyers said Tuesday.
Former Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo and officer Adrian Gonzales have pleaded not guilty to dozens of counts of child endangerment and abandonment in connection with the massacre at Robb Elementary School. Both men were set to stand trial on Oct. 20.
Gonzales’ trial will be moved to a January start in Corpus Christi, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) from the school, attorney Nico LaHood said Tuesday. Judge Sid Harle confirmed the agreement for a change of venue for Gonzales, but said no formal order had been filed yet.
Arredondo’s trial is also on hold because of a pending federal lawsuit by local prosecutors that seeks to compel testimony from Border Patrol agents who were on the scene that day. The lawsuit seeks federal court help because a state court cannot compel the agents to testify on matters that relate to their official duties.
Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell did not respond to a request for comment.
Teenage gunman Salvador Ramos stormed into the school on May 24, 2022, killing 19 fourth-grade students and two teachers in one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history. The attack is notorious also for the law enforcement response that saw more than 370 responding officers from several local, state and federal agencies wait more than an hour to confront and kill gunman Salvador Ramos.
Multiple reports from state and federal officials have laid bare cascading problems in law enforcement training, communication, leadership and technology, and questioned whether officers prioritized their own lives over those of children and teachers.
Arredondo and Gonzales are the only responding officers to face charges from that day. Only Gonzales sought to move his trial out of Uvalde, a city of about 15,000 people. Although both men were originally scheduled for trial the same day, they have separate legal teams
“We have reviewed all evidence provided to us, by the government, and we have not seen anything that supports the charges against Mr. Gonzales,” LaHood said.
Arredondo’s defense team wants to keep his trial in the city where the attack occurred.
“I think I’ve got a case that screams for a complete exoneration. I believe the people in Uvalde are going to be the most invested and determined to get to the bottom of the facts,” Arredondo’s attorney Paul Looney said.
Arredondo’s case has been held up by the federal lawsuit seeking testimony from the three U.S. Border Patrol agents, two of whom were part of the tactical team that killed Ramos.
That lawsuit claims the federal agents’ testimony could be vital to prosecuting Arredondo. His lawyers believe the testimony could be just as valuable in defending him. Arredondo, who has been identified as the on-scene incident commander that day, has long said he’s been scapegoated for law enforcement’s failures at the school.
The Border Patrol agents gave statements early in the state investigation into the shooting. In a court filing on Monday, the agency confirmed that it refused to allow the agents to testify before a grand jury or at trial.
Looney would not predict when Arredondo might go to trial.
State Supreme Court justice takes plea deal after accusations of influencing husband’s probe
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A New Hampshire Supreme Court justice pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor Tuesday after facing charges that she tried to interfere with a criminal investigation into her husband who ran the state’s division of ports and harbors.
State Supreme Court Associate Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi was indicted in October 2024 by a Merrimack County grand jury for two felonies and five misdemeanors. Under a plea deal approved by a judge on Tuesday, those charges were dismissed, and Marconi pleaded no contest to criminal solicitation of misuse of position, which is a misdemeanor.
Marconi had been accused of soliciting then-Republican Gov. Chris Sununu to influence the attorney general’s investigation into her husband, telling him that the investigation was the result of “personal petty and/or political biases.” According to the indictment, she told Sununu there was no merit to the allegations and that any investigation into her husband “needed to be wrapped up quickly because she was recused from important cases pending” before the court.
Authorities have not disclosed the nature of that investigation, but Marconi’s husband, Geno Marconi, has been charged with interfering with it by deleting voicemails and providing confidential motor vehicle records to a third party.
Geno Marconi, the director of the New Hampshire Division of Ports and Harbors, faces two felony charges — witness tampering and falsifying evidence — and four misdemeanors of obstructing government administration and violating driver privacy. Bradley Cook, chair of the port division’s advisory council, also was charged with perjury and false swearing and is accused of lying to a grand jury about Marconi.
Justice Marconi has been on administrative leave since July 2024. Geno Marconi has been on paid leave since April 2024.
“No person is above the law, and the evidence in this case required investigation and presentation to the grand jury,” New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella said at the time of Justice Marconi’s indictment.
“The decision to charge a sitting Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court was not made lightly, and it comes after careful and thoughtful deliberation. It is my hope that the public will be reassured that all individuals, including public officials, are treated equally under the law,” he added.
According to court documents, Marconi will pay $1,200 fine for pleading no contest and state prosecutors will agree that her offense does not fall under the definition a “serious crime.”
New York
3 former prison guards charged in beating death of handcuffed inmate go on trial
UTICA, N.Y. (AP) — Three former upstate New York prison guards on trial in the fatal beating of a Black handcuffed inmate took part in an act of “sheer, unimaginable brutality,” a prosecutor told a jury Tuesday.
Mathew Galliher, Nicholas Kieffer and David Kingsley are charged with murder and first-degree manslaughter in the death of Robert Brooks, whose beating by guards at the Marcy Correctional Facility on Dec. 9 was captured in part on body-camera footage. The trio were among 10 corrections officers indicted in February on murder charges or for lesser crimes.
Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick told jurors in his opening statement that they would view sickening videos of Brooks’ treatment by a group of guards, and that each of the defendants was “intimately involved.”
“They no longer were corrections officers. They were a gang,” Fitzpatrick said. “They took turns — collectively and individually — of punching him, kneeing him, pepper spraying him, choking him, pinning him down, cuffing his legs.”
Brooks was dead within an hour, before he even unpacked, Fitzpatrick said.
Brooks, 43, had been serving a 12-year sentence for first-degree assault since 2017 and was transferred to Marcy from a nearby lockup that night. The videos, which triggered widespread outrage, show officers striking him in the chest with a shoe, lifting him by the neck and dropping him.
Defense attorneys told jurors that prosecutors will not be able to prove their clients acted with malice or depraved indifference to human life, as the charges allege. The attorneys asked jurors to take careful note of their clients’ specific actions that night.
“The prosecution is attempting to tie Nicholas Kieffer to the actions of others, suggesting to you that he is somehow responsible via association,” said his attorney, David Longeretta. Kieffer applied a “minimum amount” of pepper spray to Brooks to gain his compliance, the lawyer said.
Galliher’s attorney, Kevin Luibrand, said his client has been charged with murder, in large part, for shackling Brooks’ legs to keep him from kicking.
“Mathew Galliher didn’t harm Robert Brooks. He didn’t hit him, he didn’t strike him, he didn’t encourage others to strike him, he didn’t deny him medical care,” Luibrand said. “He didn’t do anything that contributed to the death of Robert Brooks.”
Fitzpatrick, the special prosecutor, says Brooks died of a massive beating that broke a bone in his neck, ripped his thyroid cartilage and bruised several internal organs. He also died as a result of repeated restrictions to his airways, which caused brain damage, and choking on his own blood.
Fitzpatrick said Brooks was beaten three separate times as soon as he arrived at the prison, the last being the fatal beating in the infirmary caught on the silent body-camera footage.
A fourth corrections officer is scheduled to go on trial for second-degree manslaughter in January.
Six guards indicted in February have since pleaded guilty. Three more employees have agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges and are cooperating with the special prosecutor.
Fitzpatrick also is prosecuting guards in the fatal beating of Messiah Nantwi on March 1 at another Marcy lockup, the Mid-State Correctional Facility. Ten guards were indicted in April, including two who are charged with murder, in Nantwi’s death.
Washington
Judge blocks effort to change teen pregnancy prevention programs
A judge Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from requiring recipients of federal teen pregnancy prevention grants to comply with Trump’s orders aimed at curtailing “radical indoctrination” and “gender ideology.”
The ruling is a victory for three Planned Parenthood affiliates — in California, Iowa and New York — that sued to try to block enforcement of a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services policy document issued in July that they contend contradict the requirements of the grants as established by Congress.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, who was appointed to the bench by former President Barack Obama, blasted the administration’s policy change in her written ruling, saying it was “motivated solely by political concerns, devoid of any considered process or analysis, and ignorant of the statutory emphasis on evidence-based programming.”
The policy requiring changes to the pregnancy prevention program was part of the fallout from a series of executive orders Trump signed starting in his first day back in the White House aimed at rolling back recognition of LGBTQ+ people and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
In the policy, the administration objected to teaching that promotes same-sex marriage and that “normalizes, or promotes sexual activity for minors.”
The Planned Parenthood affiliates argued that the new directives were at odds with requirements of the program — and that they were so vague it wasn’t clear what needed to be done to follow them.
Howell agreed.
The decision applies not only to the handful of Planned Parenthood groups among the dozens of recipients of the funding, but also nonprofit groups, city and county health departments, Native American tribes and universities that received grants.
HHS, which oversees the program, declined to comment on Tuesday’s ruling. It previously said the guidance for the program “ensures that taxpayer dollars no longer support content that undermines parental rights, promotes radical gender ideology, or exposes children to sexually explicit material under the banner of public health.”
Texas
Trials delayed for 2 Uvalde school police officers
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The trials for the two former school police officers facing charges over the slow law enforcement response to the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, will be delayed, and one will be moved out of the city where the attack occurred, their lawyers said Tuesday.
Former Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo and officer Adrian Gonzales have pleaded not guilty to dozens of counts of child endangerment and abandonment in connection with the massacre at Robb Elementary School. Both men were set to stand trial on Oct. 20.
Gonzales’ trial will be moved to a January start in Corpus Christi, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) from the school, attorney Nico LaHood said Tuesday. Judge Sid Harle confirmed the agreement for a change of venue for Gonzales, but said no formal order had been filed yet.
Arredondo’s trial is also on hold because of a pending federal lawsuit by local prosecutors that seeks to compel testimony from Border Patrol agents who were on the scene that day. The lawsuit seeks federal court help because a state court cannot compel the agents to testify on matters that relate to their official duties.
Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell did not respond to a request for comment.
Teenage gunman Salvador Ramos stormed into the school on May 24, 2022, killing 19 fourth-grade students and two teachers in one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history. The attack is notorious also for the law enforcement response that saw more than 370 responding officers from several local, state and federal agencies wait more than an hour to confront and kill gunman Salvador Ramos.
Multiple reports from state and federal officials have laid bare cascading problems in law enforcement training, communication, leadership and technology, and questioned whether officers prioritized their own lives over those of children and teachers.
Arredondo and Gonzales are the only responding officers to face charges from that day. Only Gonzales sought to move his trial out of Uvalde, a city of about 15,000 people. Although both men were originally scheduled for trial the same day, they have separate legal teams
“We have reviewed all evidence provided to us, by the government, and we have not seen anything that supports the charges against Mr. Gonzales,” LaHood said.
Arredondo’s defense team wants to keep his trial in the city where the attack occurred.
“I think I’ve got a case that screams for a complete exoneration. I believe the people in Uvalde are going to be the most invested and determined to get to the bottom of the facts,” Arredondo’s attorney Paul Looney said.
Arredondo’s case has been held up by the federal lawsuit seeking testimony from the three U.S. Border Patrol agents, two of whom were part of the tactical team that killed Ramos.
That lawsuit claims the federal agents’ testimony could be vital to prosecuting Arredondo. His lawyers believe the testimony could be just as valuable in defending him. Arredondo, who has been identified as the on-scene incident commander that day, has long said he’s been scapegoated for law enforcement’s failures at the school.
The Border Patrol agents gave statements early in the state investigation into the shooting. In a court filing on Monday, the agency confirmed that it refused to allow the agents to testify before a grand jury or at trial.
Looney would not predict when Arredondo might go to trial.
