BATON ROUGE - 19th Judicial District judge Carson Marcentel ruled not to recuse judge Donald Johnson from the sentencing of Donald Steele. This was after East Baton Rouge Parish prosecutors didn't want Judge Don Johnson to handle the sentencing since he is the uncle of 19th District Judge Eboni Johnson Rose.
Judge Donald Johnson, this month, took over Rose's criminal docket after she returned from a months-long suspension imposed by the Louisiana Supreme Court. After a number of errors on the bench, justices last summer removed her from the bench temporarily while a state panel reviewed her competency.
Former Baton Rouge Police Officer Donald Steele had been accused of second-degree kidnapping and malfeasance. After a bench trial, Rose acquitted him of the kidnapping charge and said he