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Coffey recalls 'seven months of hell'
By STAFF REPORT
The Union Leader

PORTSMOUTH – Disgraced, broke and regretful, Patricia Coffey of Rye cleaned out her chambers at
Rockingham County Superior Court in Brentwood on Friday afternoon. She had resigned Monday; three
days after the Supreme Court suspended her without pay for three years for helping her husband, John
Coffey, shield assets from creditors, including $75,000 owed to the Professional Conduct Committee for
his disbarment investigation.

The high court overruled the recommendation by its Judicial Conduct Committee that she be suspended
without pay for three months. "I was stunned. I was dumbfounded. I was upset, obviously," said Coffey, who
had spent 16 years on the Superior Court bench.

Coffey, 54, who had a reputation as a tough but fair jurist, said she gathered all her strength on hearing
the news. "I cried. Who wouldn't?" she said in an interview with New Hampshire Sunday News.

Coffey said she understands she must pay for her mistake.

"The last seven months have been hell. Did I make a mistake? Yes. Once I realized I made a mistake, I was
as cooperative as I could be," Coffey said, a claim the Supreme Court disputed.

Supreme Court findings

The Supreme Court said Judge Coffey participated in a fraud by transferring the property, disregarded a
court order to repay the costs of her husband's disbarment investigation, and was evasive and misleading
about her actions.
The high court, which is the final authority in judicial discipline, further found she was "not completely
forthright."

"(This) conduct tarnished Judge Coffey's reputation as a jurist and brought the judiciary as a whole into
disrepute," Associate Justice James Duggan wrote for the 2-1 majority. Associate Justice Linda Dalianis
concurred, but Associate Justice Richard Galway held the penalty should have been an indefinite
suspension.

Chief Justice John Broderick and Associate Justice Gary Hicks disqualified themselves and refused to say
why.

The high court said the Judicial Conduct Committee "gave insufficient weight to the fact that the underlying
conveyances were fraudulent and that Judge Coffey acted with disregard for a valid court order, and
because it gave undue weight to Judge Coffey's cooperation, we hold that a sanction far more severe than
the recommended three-month suspension is required to protect the integrity of the judiciary."

Coffey received notice from the New Hampshire Bar Association on Thursday that her inactive status as a
judge has been changed to active status as a lawyer. She said she hopes to get a job practicing law or
teaching law. Because her discipline involved her actions as a judge, not as a lawyer, there is nothing to
prevent her from practicing law.

"I don't intend to look back. I can't look back," Coffey said at the office of her attorney, Russell Hilliard, in
Portsmouth. Hilliard was present for the interview, but didn't participate.

Coffey -- who was graduated from Portsmouth High School, Yale University and Suffolk Law School --
expects one more paycheck from the state. She was told she is eligible only for the amount she has paid
into the retirement system, which will be nominal, because judges only started paying into the system three
years ago.

Mounting troubles

The Coffeys' troubles started in 2005 when John Coffey, a lawyer who had served one term as a legislator
and was a former selectman, was disbarred for exploiting an elderly client with dementia. Property they
owned together was transferred into a revocable family trust days before he found out he was disbarred,
and that trust was the basis for Coffey's JCC complaint.

Coffey said she and her husband were deep in credit card debt, put their son through the University of
Southern California, and vastly underestimated what it would cost to make livable the home they
purchased from her parents.
"There wasn't enough money to go around," she said.

When John Coffey's business dried up during the scandal of disbarment, their debt mounted. Coffey said
she worked to arrange repayment with the Professional Conduct Committee because her husband was too
depressed to do so. He has since gotten a job as a tax examiner for the IRS.

Coffey claims they never tried to avoid the PCC debt, but also admits she didn't rush to contact the PCC
until the committee contacted her.

"When your financial situation is bad and you don't hear from creditors, you don't always want to stir up
that pot," Coffey said.

When she and the committee finally agreed on a repayment plan, she was told the PCC was sending a
letter to the Judicial Conduct Committee about her behavior.

The Supreme Court made much of the fact that her husband sold an office condo for $176,000 at one
point and didn't immediately repay the PCC.
In hindsight, she said they were right, but other debts seemed more pressing at the time.

"We weren't the best money managers," she said.

Coffey had another brush with the JCC in 2006 when she was accused of sleeping on the bench, a charge
she categorically denies. The committee found she did not sleep on the bench, but did briefly nod off
sometimes. Coffey agreed to seek diagnosis and treatment of any medical condition she might have and to
have her courtroom randomly monitored.

Coffey said Friday she has since received a clean bill of health.