A town justice in Westchester County was suspended from the bench without pay by the state's highest court Friday as he waits to be sentenced on federal charges of tax evasion, which he pleaded guilty to earlier this month. 

Marc Seedorf, a justice of the town court in Lewisboro, had been accused by federal prosecutors of evading payment of more than $160,000 in federal income tax.

Seedorf, who works as a personal injury attorney in the Bronx, was also accused of hiding hundreds of thousands of dollars he collected as proceeds from a legal settlement and failing to file individual tax returns between 2005 and 2015.

He was facing charges by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York until he pleaded guilty in federal court earlier this month. His sentencing is scheduled for March.

Seedorf last week was stripped of his caseload by state court officials, who said they would assign his work to other local jurists until he's replaced. No new cases will be assigned to Seedorf while he's still in office, officials said.

That's because, even though Seedorf pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges, he won't be automatically removed from the bench until he's sentenced. That's when his conviction is considered final, which will require him to forfeit the seat.

He'll also in the coming months be the subject of an investigation by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, the panel that reviews complaints made against the state's judges. It opens a probe whenever a judge is charged or convicted of a crime.

Neither Seedorf nor his attorney could be reached for comment on the Court of Appeals decision to suspend him without pay Friday. Seedorf is represented by Stewart Orden, a criminal defense attorney in the New York City area.

Seedorf faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, according to prosecutors.

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