CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – A disciplinary committee on Friday recommended public censure and a three-month suspension for Superior Court Judge Patricia Coffey for helping to shield her lawyer-husband’s assets from creditors as he was being disbarred.

The Supreme Court will hold a hearing Feb. 6 to consider the recommendations, which were made Friday by the court’s Judicial Conduct Committee after a closed meeting.

The committee also recommended that Coffey be ordered to reimburse the panel for the expense of her discipline hearings. The unpaid suspension would begin when Coffey returns from administrative leave, which she has been on since August.

She sits in Rockingham County Superior Court in Brentwood.

The committee was made up of substitutes because Coffey was a former member, and all the regular members had conflicts of interest.

This week, all the substitute members denied under oath that they had leaked the recommendations to the media following a closed meeting of the committee last week. Coffey and the committee’s lawyer asked for an investigation of the leak, which they said had compromised the committee’s work.

The committee rejected that claim. It said the leaks – to The Associated Press and the Concord Monitor – did not compromise the deliberations because the news stories “did not accurately reflect the decision that had been made,” and came after deliberations ended.

The committee did not elaborate on the alleged inaccuracies, and calls seeking comment were not returned Friday afternoon by the committee’s chairman, its executive secretary and Russell Hilliard, Coffey’s lawyer.

The AP reported that the committee had voted to recommend a suspension of less than six months.

Eight of the 11 committee members voted for the penalties. Two voted for public censure alone and one voted for a shorter suspension.

Coffey’s husband, John Coffey, was disbarred in 2005 for exploiting an elderly client suffering with dementia.

He faced $75,000 in fees from another disciplinary committee’s investigation of his actions. Property he owned with his wife was transferred to her name alone four days before he was notified he had been found guilty of misconduct and would face discipline.

Patricia Coffey told the panel she kept her distance from her husband’s professional problems at the time so they wouldn’t affect her work as a judge. She said she spoke to him about it only twice, and he seemed “cautiously optimistic” about the outcome. Around that time, she said had been dealing with stressful family issues.

“When I participated in creating the trust, I was not thinking like a lawyer, and certainly not as a judge, but rather I acted as a distraught wife and a concerned mother,” she said.

In its report, the committee cited the family issues and Coffey’s good reputation as a judge as mitigating factors. It also noted that no crime had been committed. However, the committee said Coffey “should have been more aware of what would constitute misconduct.”

Committee member John Clark dissented from the report.

“The debt for legal expenses which is at the very core of this matter was a debt owed by John Coffey, not Judge Coffey,” wrote Clark, an attorney.

“The conduct (Judge Coffey was accused of) was of a “nonjudicial nature,’ it was not unlawful or fraudulent, and it occurred over four years ago. In that interim period, no one has come forward to complain that Judge Coffey’s actions in any way diminished her ability to conduct her judicial responsibilities with integrity, fairness and competence.”

Clark said Coffey’s rights were violated by the public nature of the hearings and the leaks.

“The panel was not able to meet the standards upon which it was judging the judge,” he said.

Gov. John Lynch said the committee’s recommendations don’t go far enough.

“A three-month suspension is not sufficient. I believe Judge Coffey should resign,” Lynch said in a statement.

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