ALBANY - A divided New York Commission on Judicial Conduct has agreed to merely reprimand an upstate town justice who dismissed a speeding ticket for a deployed soldier's wife, but another commissioner called it “a distorted vision of patriotism” and said the judge should be removed.

Eight commissioners agreed that Farmington Town Justice Morris H. Lew fixed Lori Gilmore's 2005 speeding ticket soon after he received an e-mail from Martin Gilmore in Iraq wondering what could be done. The men had been in the Army Reserves together.

Afterward, Lew sent Martin Gilmore an e-mail, which said in part: “The ticket has been dismissed. Please consider it a very small token of thanks for your efforts in uniform.”

The commission majority said ticket-fixing was a widespread problem across the state in the 1970s before 140 judges were disciplined, and it was “egregious conduct” in this case that would normally warrant a judge's removal.

According to the commission, Lew had quietly taken the case from a fellow town judge and scheduled it quickly without notifying that judge, the ticketing state trooper or Lori Gilmore. He told the trooper, who happened to be in court that evening, he would dismiss it unless the officer objected.

Six commissioners cited mitigating factors to warrant the lesser punishment of censure: Lew's otherwise umblemished record and his patriotism.

“It is apparent that respondent was motivated in significant part by the desire to provide ‘a very small token of thanks' to an acquaintance in the military who was then serving in Iraq. While this does not excuse respondent's actions, it appears that his judgment was clouded by that fact and by his desire to make what he viewed as a patriotic gesture,” the majority concluded.

The six were Judge Thomas Klonick, attorney Stephen Coffey, Colleen DiPirro, attorney Paul Harding, Judge Karen Peters and Judge Terry Jane Ruderman.

Two commissioners, Judge Jill Konviser and attorney Richard Emery, said Lew should be removed, which had also been the recommendation of commission counsel Robert Tembeckjian. In his dissent, Emery wrote that Lew simply fixed a ticket for a friend's wife “and removal is the only sanction that is commensurate with the corrosive effect of judicial decision-making perverted by a judge's personal interests.”

He also criticized Lew's decision to consider honoring his friend's military service ahead of applying the law evenhandedly and questioned the majority's rationale. It not only failed as a mitigating circumstance, Emery wrote, it made the action worse.

“What Judge Lew forgot to consider is that his friend in Iraq, as well as many in the armed services, likely believe they are fighting to protect their country and the freedom guaranteed to each of its citizens by the Constitution of the United States,” Emery wrote. “By intentionally violating the basic precepts of due process and equal protection, the judge may have done a favor that even his distorted vision of patriotism should abhor.”

Lew could challenge the commission finding before the state Court of Appeals, which could then impose a greater or lesser discipline, Tembeckjian said. If he doesn't challenge it, the commission's finding will become final in 30 days.

Lew said Thursday he disagrees with the commission finding, but challenging it wouldn't serve any purpose.

“I want my constituents to know I didn't fix any traffic tickets,” Lew said. “The trooper who wrote this ticket chose to dismiss this ticket totally of his own volition without any coercion of any kind. I didn't make any attempt whatsoever to influence his decision.”

The only similar case recently, where patriotism was the defense, resulted in the removal of a town judge who went to Iraq to work as a contract truck driver for several months in 2005, Tembeckjian said. The commission unanimously concluded North Hudson Town Justice Glenn Fiore had abandoned the office.