The Georgia Supreme Court on Friday unanimously rejected a request that an embattled judge from the Griffin Judicial Circuit be suspended from office.
On Tuesday, the Judicial Qualifications Commission recommended that Superior Court Judge Mack Crawford be relieved of his duties, with pay, while an ethics complaint against him is pending. In July, the JQC accused Crawford of theft for directing a court clerk to transfer $15,675 to him from an account in the Pike County court registry.
Crawford, a former state legislator who once headed Georgia’s public defender system, hears cases in Fayette, Spalding, Pike and Upson counties south of Atlanta. He had already agreed to stop presiding over criminal cases.
Virgil Brown, one of Crawford’s attorneys, has said Crawford was entitled to the $15,675 for unpaid legal fees and as reimbursement for court filing fees and depositions of witnesses from a 2002 foreclosure case. The JQC contends Crawford had no right to those funds and its case against him is expected to be heard early next year. If Crawford is found to have violated the judicial code of conduct, his punishment ranges from a reprimand to removal from the bench.
In its motion to the state Supreme Court, the JQC said allowing Crawford to remain on the bench posed a “substantial threat” to the administration of justice. But the high court, in a unanimous and briefly worded decision, said it had “carefully considered” the JQC’s motion and supporting documents before reaching its decision.
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