By Tom Jarvis
The New Hampshire Judicial Branch recently enhanced its judicial infrastructure by creating the new role of magistrate. This position, established under House Bill 318 and codified in RSA chapter 491-B, aims to address challenges associated with the state’s evolving bail system. The magistrates will ensure that individuals arrested for serious offenses receive timely and consistent arraignments.
New Hampshire Supreme Court Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald, in consultation with Circuit Court Administrative Judge Ellen Christo and Superior Court Chief Justice Mark Howard, appointed three magistrates: Jaye Duncan, Stephanie Johnson, and Frank Weeks. Sworn in on December 2, they will each serve a five-year term.
The magistrates’ primary responsibility is to guarantee that defendants arrested for specific violent crimes appear before a judicial officer within 24 hours, including weekends and holidays. This mandate is designed to balance public safety and due process.
The creation of this position follows years of legislative debate over bail reform. New Hampshire’s 2018 bail law sought to reduce pretrial incarceration for low-level offenses but raised concerns about inconsistencies and public safety risks. Critics argued that bail commissioners often lacked the necessary information to make fully informed decisions. HB 318 addresses these issues by shifting certain responsibilities away from bail commissioners to magistrates.
“Serving as a magistrate primarily in criminal cases will not be an easy task, and there is a high volume of cases that need to be processed,” Chief Justice Howard said in a press release. “The magistrates will serve a critical function to give the Judicial Branch more capacity to process these cases more efficiently. They will also simultaneously need to make accurate assessments of which defendants are a risk and need to be held in custody, and who can be released without jeopardizing public safety under appropriate conditions of release. We are confident we have chosen accomplished legal professionals who understand the important responsibility they will soon take on, and we look forward to fully implementing our piece of the new law.”
In addition to arraignments, the magistrates will conduct bail hearings and probable cause hearings for felony cases. They are also authorized to issue search and arrest warrants and administer oaths.
“While it’s a narrow scope, they have a wide variety of things within that narrow scope that they can do,” says Judge Christo. “As a juxtaposition, what they are not doing is trying cases and making determinations of guilt or innocence. They are doing all of the preliminary work in any type of criminal case.”
Judge Christo emphasizes the dual benefits of the magistrate position.
“One benefit is that it satisfies the new law that says bail determinations must be made within 24 hours for certain types of charges,” she says. “The new magistrates will work on weekends and holidays so it will cover that. It will also alleviate judge time. With the return of felonies [to the Circuit Court after the end of Felonies First] last year, all the felony arraignments, bail hearings, and probable cause hearings are now held in Circuit Court. So, there has been a tremendous amount of additional caseload. The magistrates will be helping to alleviate some of that caseload for us and free up some judge time.”
Magistrate Jaye Duncan
After graduating from New England Law School in Boston in 2006, Magistrate Duncan worked at the Tampa Public Defender until 2015, when she moved back to New Hampshire. Following a few years at the Rockingham County Attorney’s Office, she returned to indigent defense work at the New Hampshire Public Defender in 2018.
“I am very excited to be part of something from the ground up,” she says. “I look forward to seeing what we can achieve here in alleviating some of the backlog and making this program successful for years to come.”
Magistrate Stephanie Johnson
Magistrate Johnson earned her JD from William Mitchell College of Law in Minnesota in 2006 and then served as a prosecutor for 14 years. She then became an Assistant Attorney General in the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the New Hampshire Department of Justice before joining Hoefle, Phoenix, Gormley & Roberts as a civil litigator in 2022.
“It is exciting to be part of something that is brand new,” she says. “A goal for me is to be as helpful as I can be in terms of meeting the goals the Branch has in terms of freeing up judge time and carrying out the statute.”
Magistrate Frank Weeks
Magistrate Weeks decided on a different career path after graduating from Franklin Pierce Law Center in 1997: law enforcement. After serving as a police officer for 15 years, he became a prosecutor for the University of New Hampshire Police Department.
“I find it very interesting to be on the ground floor of something and to help build it up,” he says. “I hope to be useful to the Judicial Branch in any way I possibly can. Bail reform is definitely an interesting conversation.”
Chief Justice MacDonald has delegated administrative authority over the magistrates to Judge Christo. She says each of the magistrates will have a home court and will be deployed to at least 12 different courts. They will also cover remote hearings.
The recently appointed magistrates began their work on January 1, focusing on streamlining procedures and reducing the Circuit Court’s increased caseload. Their progress will play a key role in shaping the ongoing implementation of bail reform in the Granite State.