Local businessman Jared Goodell and former Keene Mayor George Hansel are both looking to deflect blame in their responses to a lawsuit brought against them by a company that bought a housing development from Goodell last year.
In filings this month, Hansel says the information he provided to the company came from Goodell, while Goodell says he's not liable for information Hansel gave Tatro Road.
Bedford-based Tatro Road Realty bought the development at 7 Aliber Place in Keene from Goodell in July 2025 for about $1.6 million. In a lawsuit filed in Cheshire County Superior Court earlier this year, Tatro Road Realty alleges Goodell and Hansel — Goodell's representative in that transaction — knowingly presented misleading information about the property to get the company to buy it. Hansel works for H.G. Johnson, LLC, which is also named as a defendant.
Tatro Road Realty wants the purchase and sale agreement rescinded, as well as an award of damages and attorney's fees.
After buying the property, Tatro Road alleged it discovered flaws in the construction, as well as expenses that were omitted and short-term tenants in the place of the “stable, long-term tenants" the company had been led to believe were living there.
The company claimed Goodell and Hansel provided false and misleading information about the property.
In an answer to the suit, which Hansel and H.G. Johnson, LLC filed Aug. 19, those two defendants said their information came from Goodell.
They "reasonably relied on the information, financial metrics, and disclosures provided by the Seller, Jared Goodell, in the marketing and sale of the Property," their response says.
In his own response, filed Aug. 21, Goodell denied wrongdoing and alleged that, if any misrepresentations were made, they were made by Hansel and H.G. Johnson, LLC and not himself.
"To the extent the Plaintiff sustained any damages - which Goodell denies - those damages were caused, in whole or in part, by the acts and omissions of Hansel and H.G. Johnson, LLC," Goodell, who represents himself in the case, wrote.
Conspiracy claim
In part, Tatro Road alleges Goodell and Hansel conspired to mislead Tatro Road into buying the property so that Goodell could pay off a $100,000 mortgage he owed Hansel.
That mortgage had to do with a separate property, 181 Marlboro St., which has taken center stage in another lawsuit against Goodell.
The suit stems from a tradename dispute dating to 2019. After a trial last year, a jury awarded Roof $100,000, and her request for attorney's fees of more than $600,000 is pending.
To make sure Goodell didn't sell off assets before paying that money, if he is ultimately required to, a judge placed a lien in March on two properties he owned.
One of those properties is 181 Marlboro St.
In July, the court granted permission for Goodell to sell that property, on the condition that all the net proceeds be held by the court until the attorney fees' question is resolved.
To understand the grounds on which Roof is alleging conspiracy requires backing up to May 2025.
That's when Goodell bought 181 Marlboro St. To do so, he got a $100,000 loan from Hansel and a $100,000 loan from another creditor, the wife of a frequent business partner, according to parties on both sides of the Roof lawsuit and property records.
On July 30, 2025, Tatro Road bought the Aliber Place property.
Goodell paid off what he owed Hansel and the other creditor on 181 Marlboro St. the following month, according to both parties.
But on Aug. 28, 2025, he got a new loan from the other creditor for $200,000 and granted her the mortgage on 181 Marlboro St., according to Goodell.
So when he sold the property for $306,484 this summer, only a portion of the sale price went to the court. The majority went to the creditor.