JUDGE MARIA ELENA CRUZ was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One on April 10, 2017, by Governor Douglas Ducey. She served loyally as an appellate judge and a representative of Arizona’s rural communities until February 3, 2025, when she was appointed by Governor Katie Hobbs to serve on the Arizona Supreme Court.
Prior to her appointment to the Arizona Court of Appeals, she served as the Presiding Judge of Superior Court in Yuma County. While she served in that capacity, administering the business of the courts county-wide, Justice Cruz presided over criminal cases, Drug Court, and Restitution Court, and a victim restitution program she had established in her county and presided over as judge pro tem until her appointment to the Arizona Supreme Court. During her term as a superior court judge, Judge Cruz also presided over juvenile, family, civil and criminal matters.
Judge Cruz earned a Juris Doctorate and her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Arizona. After clerking at the Pima County Attorney’s Office, she began her practice as a prosecutor in Yuma County. Later, Judge Cruz practiced in criminal defense, eventually venturing into solo practice, and served as judge pro tem for the Cocopah Indian Tribe. In 2008 Judge Cruz became the first woman and first Latinx elected Superior Court Judge in Yuma County, and in 2025 she became the first Afro-Latina appointed to the Arizona Supreme Court.
In 2018 Judge Cruz was appointed by then-Chief Justice Scott Bales to serve on the Arizona Supreme Court Task Force on Delivery of Legal Service, where the Legal Paraprofessional certification was born. She was a zealous advocate for the implementation of the program and still promotes it throughout the State.
In addition to her service on the Arizona Court of Appeals, she also served on the Commission on Access to Justice, the Commission on Victims in the Court, the Advisory Committee on Evidence Retention, and the Advisory Committee on Rules of Evidence. She is a mentor to law students, legal paraprofessionals, and judges, and contributes to the development of the law internationally by serving as a professor of law teaching trial advocacy in various regions within the Republic of Mexico.
During her legal career Judge Cruz strived diligently to promote access to justice for all Arizonans.