The investigative panel of the state's judicial watchdog agency has asked the Supreme Court of Georgia to suspend a Griffin Circuit Superior Court judge facing judicial ethics charges.

The Judicial Qualification Commission's investigative panel, which filed ethics charges in July against Superior Court Judge Robert “Mack” Crawford, on Wednesday asked the high court to suspend him with pay, pending a final resolution of those charges.

In asking for Crawford's suspension, the panel said that allowing the judge to continue to preside over cases while charged with the theft of more than $15,000 from the Pike County Superior Court registry “poses a serious threat of harm to the administration of justice.”

Crawford's continued service while he is under an ethics cloud “would undermine the public confidence in the judiciary,” the JQC petition said.

The Supreme Court's spokeswoman said the high court, which has final jurisdiction over JQC disciplinary recommendations, has not yet ruled on the motion.

The JQC filed ethics charges against Crawford last July after the judge became the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. At the heart of both investigations is a check for nearly $15,676 in unclaimed funds in the Pike County Superior Court registry. That money was placed in the registry by Crawford, who was then in private practice, on behalf of a client in a property tax dispute.

The case was dismissed in 2009, but the funds remained in the registry until last year when Crawford directed the court clerk in a handwritten note to write him a check for the unclaimed funds.

Crawford's counsel—former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes and Zebulon attorney Virgil Brown—have countered that the registry funds were legal fees that were owed to Crawford for 16 years. Crawford claimed he forgot to collect after his client died, and a second client moved out-of-state long before the case was dismissed.

Barnes has also challenged the constitutionality of the current JQC, which was re-created by the state Legislature after the original agency was abolished by constitutional amendment in 2016.

The GBI launched its investigation in March at the request of the state attorney general's office after the Griffin Circuit district attorney referred the matter. That month, Crawford signed orders recusing himself from hearing circuit criminal cases and civil forfeitures. In April, he signed separate orders recusing himself from child support cases. Crawford has continued to preside over pending civil cases while under investigation.

Brown said Wednesday that he was not aware a petition had been filed. He said he was surprised, given Crawford's earlier recusals, saying the judge “recused just like they asked him to.”

“As long as they are going to pay him, I'm not going to raise Cain about it,” Brown said. “I don't like it. I think what they are doing is wrong. … If I am a superior court judge, and they are paying me to work, I want to work and do my job. But if they suspend me [with pay], I don't feel I'm doing the taxpayer wrong. That's the way I see it.”

“I haven't talked to him [Crawford] about this,” Brown added. Whether Crawford chooses to fight the suspension “is his choice, not mine,” he said.