With a month left before their elected terms expire and their positions are permanently eliminated, Butler County’s two jury commissioners have been locked out of their office.

“Having been advised by the (state) Attorney General’s Office that criminal charges may be filed” against Clinton Bonetti and Jon Galante, county President Judge Thomas Doerr on Friday issued an order barring the pair from using their office, phone or computers.

The judge’s order does not say what type of alleged misconduct the attorney general’s office is investigating or what charges might be filed. Court administrators said neither they nor the judge, who issued the order on his own motion, would comment because of the ongoing nature of the events.

Joseph Peters, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office, also declined to comment.

Doerr’s one-page order simply states that Bonetti and Galante are “no longer able to faithfully discharge the duties of the office to which they were elected.”

The order says either man can petition the court to contest the order.

Galante, a 28-year-old Republican from Butler Township, on Monday said he became aware of the order only hours earlier and was not prepared to comment. Bonetti, a 43-year-old Democrat from Butler Township, did not return telephone messages.

The judge’s order mandates that the jury commissioners’ office be secured. The pair’s access cards to the courthouse were deactivated. The password on the jury commissioners telephone voice mail was changed, and the commissioners’ access to the county computer system was deactivated.

The judge’s order further goes on to say that people would be appointed to fulfill the remainder of the pairs’ unexpired term, which runs through the end of the year.

Deputy Court Administrator Tom Holman said in the meantime there will be no disruption to the jury selection process. Potential jurors who have been summoned to the courthouse in December will follow the normal procedures.

After that, the jury commissioners’ assigned duties, which included creating pools of prospective jurors for civil and criminal trials, already are scheduled to be absorbed by staff in court administration.

The county commissioners in May voted to eliminate the jury commissioners’ jobs at the end of this year, citing cost savings. The salaries and benefits of the posts are budgeted at roughly $71,000 for 2013.