VIDALIA — Retired Fifth Judicial Court Judge Glen Strong has been appointed to hear Seventh Judicial District Division B cases for three of the 12 months Judge Leo Boothe will be suspended from the bench.

The Louisiana Supreme Court issued the one-year suspension without pay last week after a series of hearings and proceedings regarding Boothe’s actions in a 2002 criminal case. Boothe will also be fined $11,731.79 in court costs.

Louisiana Supreme Court spokeswoman Valerie Willard said Strong was assigned to fill Boothe’s seat beginning March 16. Willard said after the three-month assignment another interim judge would be appointed to fill the seat.

“We just don’t know who yet,” Willard said.

Strong served for 24 years as Fifth Judicial District Court judge, which includes West Carroll, Richland and Franklin parishes. Strong retired from that position in 2009 but continued doing temporary work for multiple parishes, including several cases in Concordia Parish.

“I’ve been working down here quite a bit over the past years, and I really like the people, and all the staff is just so nice to work with,” Strong said. “I’m excited about the appointment because this really is my favorite place to work.

“If I didn’t have my roots so deep in West Carroll Parish, I’d probably move down here.”

A native of Oak Grove, Strong attend the University of Louisiana at Monroe, then Northeast Louisiana State University, before his admission into Louisiana State University law school.

Strong worked as an attorney in Monroe and West Carroll Parish, before serving as a public defender and later an assistant district attorney.

Strong ran for the position of judge in the Fifth Judicial District in 1984 and won with 78 percent of the vote in the district.

Boothe said he would return to finish out the remainder of his term after the suspension. The six-term judge’s current term ends Dec. 31, 2014.

The Judiciary Commission of Louisiana alleged Boothe committed the following violations after granting a motion to reduce defendant James Skipper’s 25-year jail sentence to 12 years with credit for time served:

•Having the reconsideration hearing without jurisdiction.

•Failing to recuse himself.

•Engaging in improper ex parte communications.