Ex-judge, who helped husband hide money, fights for pension

Former Judge Patricia Coffey

CONCORD — Eleven years after resigning as a Rockingham County Superior Court judge, after helping her disbarred lawyer-husband hide money from the state, Patricia Coffey is suing for an annual $89,604 pension, more than $400,000 in back-pension pay and health insurance.

Coffey resigned in 2008 after the Supreme Court suspended her for three years without pay, for helping her husband John Coffey create a trust to hide assets, while he was being disbarred for the financial exploitation of an elderly Rye woman. Coffey was also investigated for 2006 allegations that she fell asleep while presiding over Superior Court cases, was ordered to seek a confidential medical examination and be subject to random monitoring of her courtroom.

Now represented by Portsmouth attorney Russell Hillard, Coffey on Friday filed a four-count federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of New Hampshire contending the Board of Trustees of the New Hampshire Judicial Retirement Plan voted in 2015 to deny her pension application.

Her lawsuit reports she’s now 64, lives in California and was a superior court judge for 16½ years. During that time, Coffey claims in her suit, she made mandatory pension contributions and under terms of the plan, is entitled to a pension of 71 percent of her final year’s salary.

Coffey’s suit states her final year’s salary was $126,203, so she’s entitled to an annual pension of $89,604. She’s asking for a jury trial, a finding that the board violated law by denying her pension and that her pension be paid, with back pay. She’s seeking compensation for lost health benefits for the past four years, enrollment in the judicial health plan and reimbursement for legal costs and attorney’s fees.

The lawsuit states Coffey was denied the pension because the board found she was not employed as a judge at the time of her retirement age, while Coffey disputes that interpretation of applicable law. Coffey claims in her suit that she was vested in the retirement plan because she had the 15 years of minimum service when she reached age 60.

The suit was just filed Friday and the Board of Trustees for the New Hampshire Judicial Retirement Plan has 30 days to respond.

Six months after she resigned as a Superior Court judge, Coffey was again the subject of judicial reprimand. Then the N.H. Supreme Court’s Judicial Conduct Committee found she violated judicial code of conduct by drawing a salary from a private company, while also collecting full judicial pay, while suspended and under investigation for previous impropriety.

In a statement, the JCC announced Coffey violated three canons of the judicial code of conduct by collecting full-time pay for document retrieval services for a New York City firm at the same time she collected her judge’s pay. Coffey signed a document accepting the JCC’s findings and agreed she would be the subject of censure, a public reprimand, for the violations.

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Ex-judge, who helped husband hide money, fights for pension

Indicted Nashville Judge To Receive $4,500 Monthly Pension: Report

NASHVILLE, TN — Former Davidson County General Sessions Judge Casey Moreland is in line to receive a $4,588 monthly pension, plus insurance benefits, despite being under federal indictment, The Tennessean reports.

Even though he faces trial on three counts of obstruction of justice and witness tampering related to allegations he paid a woman $6,000 in an effort to get her to recant public allegations against him, Moreland could still receive taxpayer-funded benefits. Moreland resigned as one of the county's 11 General Sessions judges as part of a pre-trial release agreement.

Moreland — who can also receive medical insurance coverage and a $10,000 life insurance policy in addition to the pension — would, under state law, forfeit his retirement benefits upon conviction of "a felony arising out of that person's employment or official capacity, constituting malfeasance in office." Metro Law Director Jon Cooper told The Tennessean that Metro's employment benefits board could revoke those benefits even without a conviction.

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Indicted Nashville Judge To Receive $4,500 Monthly Pension: Report

Judge retires after discipline for racially insensitive comments

Judge Michael Creedon is retiring with a six-figure pension after being disciplined for insensitive comments.
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Judge retires after discipline for racially insensitive comments

Bribe-taking judge will get annual $120,000 pension

By pleading guilty to bribery-related felonies days ago, John A. Michalek did nothing to jeopardize his six-figure state pension as a former State Supreme Court Justice.

He will be paid approximately $120,500 annually through his golden years, The Buffalo News determined through payroll records and a years-of-service figure provided by the State Comptroller’s Office, which manages the state’s pension funds.

The payments could change slightly based on subtle variables that will be considered before the payments begin later this year, a spokeswoman for the comptroller’s office said after being told of The News’s calculation.

Michalek’s pension is safe, even though New York lawmakers and good-government groups have long argued that public officials should lose all or some portion of their pensions if convicted of a crime related to their official duties.

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Bribe-taking judge will get annual $120,000 pension

Chatham County probate clerk who admitted theft sues to get her pension restored

SAVANNAH | Convicted former Chatham County Probate Court Chief Clerk Kim Birge has challenged the denial of her county pension benefits based on her conviction.

The challenge was filed Thursday in Chatham County Superior Court for Birge and her husband, Lawrence Franklin Birge. It named Chatham County acting through the Chatham County Pension Board.

It asks a judge to review the facts and hold a hearing to require the pension board to show why it should not be required to provide Birge with her pension.

Birge, 62, worked for the county and was a member of the retirement plan from July 19, 1982, until she was terminated Dec. 2, 2014.

She pleaded guilty in federal court on July 31, 2015, to stealing $232,000 from the court as part of a scheme in which the government said she stole more than $750,000 over a three-year period.

She was sentenced to six years in federal prison and ordered to make restitution of more than $750,000 for her admission to stealing $232,000 from the court.

As part of the plea to the mail fraud count, prosecutors dismissed the remaining counts in the indictment.

A pre-sentencing investigation identified 33 individual victims, two estates and Chatham County Probate Court that suffered losses as the result of her conduct.

U.S. District Judge William T. Moore Jr. said the 36 victims suffered actual losses, adding that none of the funds ever belonged to the court.

He set the actual restitution in the case at $751,715.95.

Chatham County officials contend Birge stole $890,000 from individuals and another $113,000 from Chatham County.

At her sentencing, Birge told Moore she “wanted to ask forgiveness for everybody who has been affected by my wrongdoing. … I am ashamed and embarrassed.”

The petition seeking her pension, filed by attorney Walter Bellow III, said she applied for her benefits under the Chatham County Employees Retirement Plan on Jan. 5, 2015, and was denied on Jan. 26, 2015.

She appealed and was denied March 30.

Her suit said denial of her pension is “unreasonable, capricious and arbitrary and an illegal attempt to exercise discretion which is clearly forbidden by Georgia law.”

The county argued that the pension contained criminal conduct violations of which “are specifically contemplated” in the county’s plan.

Those violations include convictions for theft, sabotage, embezzlement, and fraud.

Further, the pension plan mandates that the pension board “reduce any sum to Ms. Birge by three times the amount of the economic impact of her crime. … That sum is far above that is available for the board to seize.”

At Birge’s sentencing hearing, Clarence Bynes Jr. – one of Birge’s 33 individual victims – told Moore that, “This is atrocious. … There was no fear here. ... This was just greed. Why would anyone do this to young kids. ... Ms. Birge should be ashamed.”

He told the judge he lost $217,000 with Probate Court from the sale of his father’s house. He did not learn of the theft until the day he went to claim the money and was told his money was gone.
“I’m sorry. ... Your honor, this is not fair,” Bynes said.

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Chatham County probate clerk who admitted theft sues to get her pension restored

Feds will take some of disgraced Clark County Judge Steven Jones’ pension

Former Family Court Judge Steven Jones

By JEFF GERMAN
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

A federal judge Monday gave the government permission to commandeer the public pension of former Family Court Judge Steven Jones to help pay $2.9 million in restitution owed victims of his investment scheme.

The Public Employees Retirement System of Nevada — which says Jones is eligible for roughly $10,000 per month for life under early retirement — fought the effort in the interest of preserving the integrity of the system for its 155,000 members.

In a ruling from the bench, U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey said the government has a right to step into Jones’ shoes and apply a portion of the early retirement benefit to the owed restitution.

Dorsey said federal prosecutors could garnish 25 percent of the $10,000 each month and put the rest of the money in the former judge’s federal prison account. Prosecutors plan to seek the rest of the money at a later date.

PERS General Counsel Christopher Nielsen told Dorsey he would work with prosecutors on a written order setting parameters of the pension grab.

Jones, 58, is serving a 26-month prison term at a federal facility near Bakersfield, Calif. as a result of his conviction for participating in the decade-long investment scheme. His projected release date is April 12, 2017.

He pleaded guilty in September 2014 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and resigned after 20 years on the bench. The Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline last month banned Jones from the bench for life.

An October 2012 indictment alleged that Jones and five others persuaded people to lend them money for investment projects under the guise of quick repayment with high interest. Jones later admitted that he used his judicial office to further the fraud. At least 22 victims were swindled out of the $2.9 million.

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Feds will take some of disgraced Clark County Judge Steven Jones’ pension