Judge Robert “Mack” Crawford, Pike County Superior Court, at his JQC hearing on Feb. 25. (Photo: John Disney/ALM)

The Supreme Court of Georgia is delaying a decision on whether to permanently remove a suspended superior court judge facing a criminal indictment until the state Court of Appeals decides whether the state judicial watchdog that recommended the action is legal.

The high court's decision postpones the removal of Pike County Superior Court Judge Robert “Mack” Crawford, a former state legislator, from his judicial post for ethics violations associated with the December 2017 theft of more than $15,000 from his court's registry. The JQC suspended Crawford with pay in December, and its hearing panel recommended Crawford's removal in April after a two-day ethics hearing.

Crawford's lawyers attempted to stop the ethics hearing that resulted in the removal recommendation by filing a quo warranto petition contending that JQC members were improperly appointed and, as a result, are acting illegally in conducting the ethics hearing. They lost that contest when Cobb County Superior Court Judge Ann Harris upheld the JQC appointments, sparking Crawford's appealed.

Crawford's attorneys—former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes of The Barnes Law Group and Zebulon lawyer Virgil Brown—also filed a formal exception to the JQC removal recommendation with the Georgia Supreme Court in May.

The court ruled Tuesday that the pending appeal and Crawford's formal exception to his removal, which includes identical arguments that the JQC was illegally constituted, require a stay on whether he should be removed from office.

“The issue of the valid composition of the JQC clearly is a threshold question, and its resolution will determine the subsequent course of this matter,” the high court said.

Because the JQC hearing panel took no evidence and heard no testimony on the issue of the validity of the nominations to the JQC, “The record before this court on this issue is devoid of any evidentiary basis upon which to base any meaningful appellate review,” the high court ruled. “In contrast, the record on appeal in the quo warranto action before the Court of Appeals will contain all the pleadings and orders, including the trial court's lengthy and thorough final order, as well as the testimony of witnesses and the exhibits introduced at the hearing. And the Court of Appeals' decision will be subject to possible review by this Court through the certiorari process, thus avoiding the possibility of conflicting rulings.”

The JQC filed ethics charges against Crawford in September 2018, before he was indicted on two felony charges—theft and violating his oath of office. A trial has not been scheduled.

But the JQC proceeded with the ethics hearing after suspending Crawford from the bench with pay in December.

After the JQC panel held that Crawford “did not respect or comply with the law” when he directed a court clerk to give him a check for $15,675 belonging to his former clients and recommended that he be stripped of his judicial post, Crawford protested to the high court. The Supreme Court must approve the JQC's disciplinary recommendations.

The JQC panel members include Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Robert McBurney, attorney Jamala McFadden of Atlanta's McFadden Davis and Cobb County Police Chief Michael Register.