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ATLANTA — Nashville’s mayor has been suspended by the governor following a criminal indictment.

Gov. Brian Kemp issued the executive order suspending Mayor Taylor Scarbrough Thursday.

Scarbrough, 56, was indicted Feb. 1 by the Berrien County Grand Jury in its first meeting in almost a year, the Alapaha District Attorney’s office said in a statement. The COVID-19 pandemic forced a shutdown of many judicial functions statewide in 2020.

The mayor was indicted on charges of theft by conversion, theft by deception and criminal damage to property in the second degree, the order said.

On May 3, Kemp named state Attorney General Christopher Carr, Rincon Mayor Ken Lee and Union City Mayor Vince Lee to a commission to determine if the indictment interfered with the mayor’s duties.

The commission found the indictment “does relate to and does adversely affect the administration of the office of Mayor, and that the rights and interests of the public are adversely affected thereby,” the governor’s order states.

On Aug. 17, deputies were dispatched to Scarbrough’s home; a man claimed the mayor had taken and used his excavator without permission and had caused significant damage to the machinery, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation statement said.

On Aug. 20, the GBI’s Douglas Regional Office received a request from the Berrien County Sheriff’s Office to conduct an investigation regarding the allegation of property damage by a public official.

Scarbrough turned himself in to the Berrien County Jail without incident, the GBI said. He was initially charged with theft by conversion and theft of services.

Terry Richards is senior reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times.