BATON ROUGE — Donald Steele, a former Baton Rouge Police officer convicted of malfeasance in office after a traffic stop in which a woman said Steele forcibly groped her, was sentenced to time in prison on Thursday.

Steele was sentenced to one year behind bars, but will only serve two months of that sentence due to time served. District Attorney Hillar Moore told WBRZ that the defense is likely seeking an appeal. 

Steele's conviction stemmed from a 2021 traffic stop of a 19-year-old Southern University student on suspicion of DWI. 

Following Steele's arrest, he was fired.

The case was ripe with controversy before Thursday's sentencing. Judge Donald Johnson's decision on Thursday came after errors made in the case by his niece, Judge Eboni Johnson Rose.

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; this happened in April 2024.