It took less than 15 minutes for New Hampshire Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi to enter her plea on Tuesday. But that brief hearing brought to a sudden end the year-long criminal case in which state prosecutors accused her of trying to wield her influence as one of the state’s top judges on behalf of her husband, who is facing legal troubles.

Inside a Concord courtroom, Hantz Marconi pleaded no contest to a single charge of criminal solicitation stemming from a private conversation she had with then-Gov. Chris Sununu last June. At the time, Hantz Marconi’s husband, Geno Marconi, the state port director, was under investigation for allegedly sharing confidential records, and she was forced to recuse herself from all cases involving the New Hampshire Department of Justice.

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