Topeka ? A Barber County magistrate judge has been accused of submitting false expense vouchers and failing to perform some duties and could face disciplinary action by the Kansas Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court already has ordered Judge Scott L. McGuire to handle only administrative chores and no judicial duties. The allegations against McGuire are contained in a notice filed with the Commission on Judicial Qualifications by its examiner, Edward Collister Jr.

The commission makes recommendations to the Supreme Court on possible disciplinary action when judges are accused of misconduct. The court will make a final decision on what sanction, if any, to impose.

Collister filed his notice last month, and the Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered McGuire to stop handling judicial duties in the southern Kansas county.

McGuire has until Dec. 15 to respond in writing to the allegations. He could not be reached Wednesday.

Collister’s notice alleges that McGuire failed to perform some of his judicial duties by not appearing for work and not being available in June, July and August.

The notice also accuses McGuire of submitting false or padded expense vouchers 19 times between December 2002 and July 2003, as well as on “unspecified occasions” over the past five years.

Collister declined Wednesday to provide more details about the allegations, citing Supreme Court rules governing attorneys’ and prosecutors’ conduct and pretrial publicity.

McGuire is the second magistrate in less than five months to face a commission inquiry into allegations of misconduct.

Last month, just before commission hearings in her case were to began, Cheyenne County Magistrate Judge Tamara Zimbelman agreed to resign on Jan. 1. She had been convicted in March of intimidating a man she believed stole her purse from a St. Francis bowling alley.

Magistrate judges, who do not have to hold law degrees, handle preliminary hearings in criminal cases, small civil cases and other limited judicial actions.