BATON ROUGE — East Baton Rouge Parish prosecutors want a state appeals court to force a change in which local judge handles the sentencing for a former Baton Rouge Police officer convicted of malfeasance.

A 19th Judicial District judge last week said Judge Donald Johnson could handle the sentencing after taking the case from his niece, Judge Eboni Johnson Rose. Errors that Rose made in Donald Steele's case were partly responsible for her being suspended from the bench for the better part of a year.

Judge Carson Marcantel said he found no reason to remove Johnson, saying there was no evidence Johnson would be unfair. Prosecutors said the familial relationship between Johnson and Rose required him to step down.

The prosecutors on Tuesday asked the 1st Circuit Court of Appeal to overrule Marcantel's decision and direct that the matter go to someone else.

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 was guilty of misdemeanor malfeasance, a crime that doesn't exist.

At Steele's sentencing in April 2024, Rose vacated the guilty verdict and entered a plea of not guilty. The state appealed, and the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals and the State Supreme Court each said Steele was guilty of felony malfeasance.

The state had argued in court not only about the family ties between the two judges, but noted Steele's attorney initially sought a recusal.

Marcentel stated that the state presented no facts beyond the pair's relationship and no evidence to suggest Johnson might rule improperly in this case.