Judge lifts no-contact order for West Alton Marina owner

ALTON — Charges against Brian Fortier, co-owner of West Alton Marina, might have been dropped in February, but it takes time to unwind a years-long criminal prosecution. In March, Fortier’s attorney requested his client be released from protective orders which prohibited him from contacting certain persons involved in the complaints, and that order has since been granted by Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Leonard.

The request, made by defense attorney Bill Christie of the law firm Sheehan and Gordon, explained that “Fortier is a defendant in several collateral civil actions” that have been transpiring alongside the criminal prosecutions related to sexual assaults that took place at West Alton Marina.

John Murray, formerly the manager of the marina and romantic partner of Fortier, has been found guilty in federal court and pleaded guilty in state court, for engaging in sexual acts with teenage employees under his authority, for soliciting sexual images and videos from those employees, and for at times offering cash in exchange for those recordings or for sexual contact. He is currently serving a 25-year sentence in federal prison; his state sentence of 7.5 to 15 years will be served concurrently.

Fortier was charged in 2022 with felony sexual assault, aggravated felony sexual assault and witness tampering. A jury found him guilty of engaging in sex with a 16-year-old employee, but acquitted him on witness tampering. However, that conviction didn’t stick.

In a rare instance of jury misconduct, Leonard ordered a retrial after the defense team learned of troubling revelations from the jurors. Specifically, one juror admitted to basing a verdict on evidence Leonard had directed the jury to disregard, and another had been dishonest about whether or not they were close to people who had been victim of sexual assault.

On Feb. 7, the Belknap County Attorney's Office issued a notice to the court they would no longer pursue the charges, because the victim didn’t want to go through the experience of testifying about the alleged assaults a second time.

Though the criminal charges are void, the latest action by the court shows Fortier remains entangled in civil court. A search of the court database shows four civil cases in which he is a defendant.

As Christie wrote in his March 4 request to release his client from the protective order, “This will allow the civil matters to proceed in an orderly fashion without having to recreate the State’s investigation and conserve the resources of the courts and the parties.”