A state judge in Baton Rouge appears so incompetent at her job, showing bias or committing legal error in numerous criminal cases, that she can’t be trusted to remain on the bench during a formal probe into her alleged misconduct, the Louisiana Judiciary Commission said recently.
The Louisiana Supreme Court agreed this week, removing 19th Judicial District Judge Eboni Johnson Rose from her elected post on an interim basis, with pay, saying she "presents a substantial threat of serious harm to the public.”
Among her alleged transgressions, Rose accused District Attorney Hillar Moore’s office of "systemically targeting Black men” as she pushed prosecutors to drop charges in a case this spring, the commission claimed.
“The young man doesn’t have any fricking felonies. And I know that the DA probably wants every young Black man in prison, but I don’t,” Rose said during an April 29 sidebar.
“And this case is god damn four years old now. And that’s the best that y’all can come up with? You’re just going to what, stick every n*****r in jail?”
Rose, who is Black, won the seat in 2020 and is now running for a spot on the First Circuit Court of Appeals.
It was among several cases over which the commission is investigating Rose based on complaints and media reports, according to the newly released records. In urging the Louisiana Supreme Court to bench Rose, the commission acknowledged the request was drastic.
The court has disqualified judges in the past pending investigations, but the commission said that there “does not appear to be direct precedent for interim disqualification under facts similar to those here.”
Even so, the commission was "deeply concerned that Judge Rose's succession of clear legal errors in criminal cases, as well as her wholly inappropriate use of a contemptible racial slur in court ... mean that Judge Rose may pose a substantial threat of serious harm to the public or the administration of justice if she remains in office.”
The records show that Rose has taken an apologetic stance with the commission, while arguing that her actions didn’t rise to the level of being sidelined.
Her attorneys described Rose as “exceptionally remorseful” over the sidebar comment and “the impact those statements have had on the agencies and individuals involved, the public, and the judiciary as a whole.” Rose “accepts full responsibility for her lapse in judgment in this regard which resulted in an extreme aberration from her character.”
Moore, the district attorney, declined to comment on the interim suspension for Rose or the impact of her alleged slur.
Rose blamed heavy stress from negative media coverage and said that, at the time, she was suffering "hair loss, anxiety, and stomach complications as a result of the ongoing intense media scrutiny combined with the normal stressors” of the job.
She disputed the commission’s allegation, however, that she was trying to coerce prosecutors to drop the charges in that case.
Rose’s disqualification wasn’t the result of one incident, according to the commission, but stemmed from evidence she committed misconduct in four separate criminal matters.
"In another case, it was alleged and reported that after a jury found a criminal defendant not guilty, Judge Rose met with the jury and then changed the verdict to guilty, which led to the granting of a mistrial and this Honorable Court having to reverse the mistrial and reinstate the not guilty verdict,” the commission wrote.
In a third case, Rose allegedly imposed an unlawful sentence against a defendant charged with aggravated arson, then vacated it along with the guilty plea.
“Finally, a media article reported that in a fourth criminal case, Judge Rose initially convicted a defendant of a non-existent misdemeanor offense and, after it was brought to her attention that the verdict was invalid, rendered an acquittal,” the commission wrote.
Rose acknowledged poor performance in some of those cases, the records show. But she's claimed to the commission that she meant well.
Her conduct “was by and large the unfortunate result of unintentional mistakes, oversights, and inadvertent failures to be properly prepared," her attorneys wrote recently. "They were not — by any measure — the result of deliberate indifference to her responsibilities to the judiciary, ill practices, or bad faith."
Rose’s apologies weren’t enough to keep her on the bench, however, given what the commission described as “serious concerns” about her competence.
The Supreme Court's order came in a 5-2 decision, with justices Jeff Hughes and Piper Griffin dissenting.
Interim disqualifications for judges are rare, usually reserved for serious allegations of misconduct like sexual harassment or tax evasion. Still, at least four other district and city court judges in south Louisiana have been temporarily disqualified since 2018 pending the outcomes of investigations.
In several cases, judges have resigned before the Supreme Court imposed final discipline on them.
James Clary Jr., Rose’s lawyer, insisted that Rose would continue to cooperate in the misconduct investigation.
“We have nothing but respect for the Supreme Court’s processes and rules,” Clary said. “At the end of this we want to be better.”
