BATON ROUGE — A familiar yet controversial face returned to the bench following a nearly yearlong disqualification and suspension handed out by the Louisiana Supreme Court
Baton Rouge Judge Eboni Johnson Rose returned to the 19th Judicial District Courthouse on June 26th but her colleagues quickly voted to remove her from hearing criminal cases. That’s according to a court order signed by the judge herself.
In fact, ten out of 14 active judges in the 19th JDC signed the order to move Johnson Rose to civil proceedings. She will now hear cases solely comprised of civil cases beginning in August, according to that order.
Chief Judge Don Johnson, who is also Johnson Rose’s uncle, will take over her criminal case load while the embattled judge will now take on additional civil cases.
Johnson Rose was elected in 2020 but the Louisiana Supreme Court removed her from the bench last August pending the outcome of an investigation into misconduct allegations by the Judiciary Commission of Louisiana.
Suspended without Pay
Johnson Rose’s initial suspension came after several UWK investigations into the 19th JDC judge’s rulings, including ‘destroyed’ polling slips from a 2024 trial.
The Louisiana Supreme Court said in 2024, they “received complaints and media reports regarding alleged misconduct by Judge Eboni Johnson Rose in four separate criminal matters. Specifically, in three cases, it is alleged that Judge Rose made a series of serious legal errors regarding relatively straightforward issues of criminal procedure. In the fourth case, it is alleged that Judge Rose made comments in court indicative of bias against the District Attorney’s Office and used profane and offensive language, including a racial slur, in doing so.”
Judge Rose appeared before the Judiciary Commission of Louisiana on Jan. 17, 2025, where she “admitted that her conduct violated the Code of Judicial Conduct.”
In the proceeding involving the District Attorney’s Office, Johnson Rose accused East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore’s Office of “systemically targeting Black men.”
“I know the DA probably wants to throw every black man in jail but I don’t,” the court transcript reads.
Later on, she asks prosecutors if they want to “stick every n****r in jail,” according to court transcripts.
Ultimately, that investigation ended after the Supreme Court suspended Johnson Rose for two months without pay, placed her on two years of probation, and fined her more than $11,000 to cover the cost of the investigation.
Scandal ridden Background
In one incident in March 2024, Johnson Rose initially acquitted former police officer Donald Steele, Jr. of second-degree kidnapping of a Southern University student but found him guilty of “misdemeanor grade” malfeasance in office.
However, in Louisiana, malfeasance in office is solely classified as a felony offense, meaning that Judge Rose convicted Steele under a statute that does not exist. Several weeks later, in April 2024, Judge Rose reversed her original decision and declared Steele not guilty of malfeasance and innocent of any crime.
Roughly a month after Rose Johnson reversed her decision in the Donald Steele case, the state Supreme Court overturned the conviction of a Baton Rouge teacher, which had been ruled on by Rose Johnson.
The court’s decision stemmed from an incident that occurred on July 6, 2020, when Bridgette Digerolamo, then 38, got in an argument with three individuals in a car regarding their driving, which had caused her home to flood.
Digerolamo was then accused of bashing a car with a baseball bat before threatening occupants of the car with a gun.
In that case, Johnson Rose initially read a verdict of “not guilty” but then returned jurors to the courthouse and issued a “guilty” verdict, explaining that the jury had misunderstood her instructions.
The Louisiana Supreme Court justices then reversed Judge Eboni Johnson Rose’s ruling and reinstated the not-guilty verdict on April 30, 2024, more than a year after the original trial in February 2023.
In yet another incident in May 2024, Johnson Rose vacated the guilty plea of a Texas lawyer who admitted to setting his ex-girlfriend’s Baton Rouge house on fire after the judge realized she had suspended too much of his prison time.
Johnson Rose was one of the ten judges to sign off on her own reassignment order, according to the order. District judges Tiffany Foxworth-Roberts, Beau Higginbotham, Richard “Chip” Moore, and Collette Greggs did not sign the order.
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