ATLANTA -- A special prosecutor is continuing his investigation of former Brunswick Superior Court Judge Amanda Williams, his spokeswoman said Thursday.

Williams resigned in December instead of fighting charges of abuse of power pending against her before the Judicial Qualifications Commission. At the time, she was the chief judge of the Brunswick Judicial Circuit and had served on the bench 21 years.

She had originally vowed publicly to contest the allegations in an open trial before the commission, but her defense and any testimony could have been used her in a criminal trial. In her agreement with the commission, she promised not to seek another elective or appointed judicial position.

Fulton District Attorney Paul Howard, serving as a special prosecutor, is conducting a probe to see if her behavior broke any laws.

"The case is still under investigation. There are no further updates to report at this time," said Howard's spokeswoman Yvette Jones.

Messages left with her attorneys seeking a comment were not immediately answered.

The State Bar of Georgia's website lists Williams as an attorney in good standing with no reported disciplinary citations, and the Georgia Supreme Court has not disbarred her or issued any other sanction. Often, such punishment comes after the completion of criminal matters.

Among the allegations is that she sentenced a drug-abuse offenders to solitary confinement without a public hearing and without being able to consult an attorney. The Qualifications Commission also charged her with ordering a student in the audience handcuffed for chuckling and assigning cases to her daughter, who is an attorney, and then taking the daughter's side without hearing any other side.

It also accused her of lying to the commission's investigators.