New Hampshire Superior Court Judge Patricia Coffey resigned after she was suspended for three years by the state Supreme Court for dealings considered fraudulent and dishonest by her colleagues. Coffey’s demise is tied to a fraudulent property transfer involving her husband, John Coffey was barred as an attorney over the controversy.
John Coffey was accused of exploiting an elderly client with dementia in 2005 and was facing discipline when he appears to have transfer property four days before the ruling to try to protect the property from being claimed in damages. Judge Coffey was found to be complicit in the transfer despite a court order that her husband should repay the costs of the investigation.
She is not the only jurist in trouble, here and here and here and here.
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Judges & attorneys, sighhh…enough said.
i totally agree with the resignation, but the license suspension seems excessive given the limited role she played in simply signing the transfer documents. If her husband had any sense of manliness at all, he would have tried to take the wrap alone and said he tricked her into signing. Ok, call me chauvinistic, but at least not a coward..
She obviously knew the transfer (four days before the ethics ruling) to a family trust would be deemed a “badge of fraud,” and was she was likely buying time for her husband who had problems with his own disbarment. However, denying this family the ability to make a livelihood for three years does appear to be extreme, though I understand the plight of Bar Counsel, who apparently were forced to jump through various hoops to convict this guy of ethical breaches against an incompetent. That act by the Judge’s husband is the most egregious of conduct and his disbarment seems justified. Lying down with dogs, does apparently condemn one to fleas.
Was she a Bush appointee? Sounds like she’d be perfect for the Justice Department…..
High Gilpatric:
Not her, she has some sense of shame. Now her husband….