As a judge in Yuma County Superior Court, Maria Elena Cruz was unable to go to the grocery store without encountering members or anyone who appeared in court. She said it made her a better person.

Cruz was first elected to the bench at the age of 35 and spent her career serving her community. Now, as she rises to the Arizona Supreme Court, she keeps the same small town perspective in the center.

This interview has been lightly edited for space and clarity.

How did you first come into contact with the legal system? How did it progress later to pursue a career in law?

There was a serious car accident. One of the things I thought the moment I thought I was probably going to die. The moment I get answered all the questions, the lights go out or some kind of transformation occurs. I remember grabbing the steering wheel and thinking, “This is it and trying to find all the answers.” And I was out for a short time, then my eyes were open and I was still here. I was still here, but later looked for legal representation, and it was through connections and contacts that I was able to appoint an attorney.

When I think about it here from the perspective of living in Phoenix, personal injury lawyers are everywhere, everywhere, but that wasn’t for me. And I remember thinking after that issue or as the issue is going on, this is not something I could do without a lawyer. And this lawyer is uniquely positioned to help me. I thought of lawyers, in a way, their profession, definitely the servants of people, but certainly there to provide their own services and defend the rights of individuals. And I thought that was a job I could do.

When did you start working in law, when did you pivot? What led you to your thoughts in these transitions?

I had the opportunity to attend a prosecutor’s clinic at law school and started a case in which I was charged under a misdemeanor case where the professor oversees it. And I found it to be a very important and satisfying job. I thought it felt like a superhero. It corrects mistakes and leads people to justice. I honestly felt like in my mind that I was bringing a cape to me. I’m a superhero now, right? And I had incredible respect for our system. Luckily, I have never been exposed to the negative aspects of the legal system, especially the criminal legal system, so I don’t understand how fast and how easy someone can trample over them. did. That’s what I need to see up close.

Some of my colleagues recommended gaining experience as defense attorneys. They said the best prosecutors have some defensive experience. And I thought maybe, I probably don’t like it, but I’ll go and I’ll know. The first group assigned as defense counsel had cases of people who were innocent and completely innocent, even when the crime occurred, even within the country. He was accused of a drive-by shooting, which was a misconception. And I couldn’t believe this could happen so easily. It was incredibly difficult to know that so much responsibility rests on me for the work I did. It took me two months to detain this person every time, but in the end it was a success. But every weekend, every Friday, I have another weekend where I couldn’t kick this person out, and I could be detained here and going to prison. It plagued me with the work I was doing as a prosecutor, but it balanced me. It really brought me to the centre.

How did you approach your work as a lawyer?

I didn’t want to be the one who defended people and helped them get out of trouble and continue with the spinning door. It wasn’t sitting with me. I wanted to know that what I was doing was good and justice purpose. With each client, after we talked about the case and potential defense and what we could do, I always took the time to talk about that person. How did you get here? We were on the right track and did we make the wrong turn because something happened? Or, unfortunately, we were born into a situation where other people made the decision to put us in the wrong place, so we were never on the right track? Empower those people regardless of where we are today, whether you are on the other side of the glass you are looking at me. There’s a way out of it.

Most sentences in our criminal justice system are not life sentences. Most of them are not death sentences. Most of them are for a certain period of time. And there is always an opportunity for those people to choose again and choose in a different way. So I wanted to be there, but it felt like I was actually adding value to the community by having that conversation and doing it. No one needed it from me and it wasn’t technically my job, but I needed it for my soul.

Coming from a small county, you connected with your community and were elected, how did this get you informed as a judge in your perspective?

Judges in rural communities are used to being with people. We live among the people in the conflict we settle and those who oversee probation.

I had a program called Swift, Accountability, Fairness, Enforcement and Safety, and was about dealing with probation violations, low-level probation violations, or low-level offender violations. And the idea is that if you can’t take the person within 24 hours, like the next morning, you can’t take the person with you, like the next morning, you can’t take the person with you, like the next morning, I was in front of him. We issue sanctions, you complete the sanctions and you move forward with your return to good condition.

The next morning, there was a person in the program that had breached the offence in court. We talked about her being in custody for two days, and she worked in a grocery store and as a result, she didn’t want her to lose her employment. So we planned to schedule her sanctions over the weekend. I’m going to free you. You go to work and then in a few days you’re going to return yourself. And we go through that process and then cut and push to Maria Elena Cruz grocery shopping in her little cart, and there’s a woman in the register I just released from prison .

These interactions occur all the time. It may seem like an annoying thing to those who have to keep it visible all the time, but I think we will become better people. We are responsible for all decisions we make.

Are you planning to empower and represent those who have never seen it reflected in the Supreme Court before? What does that look like to you?

My goal is to do justice work for the best of my abilities. People will see me like I do. It’s very clear that I’m a woman. It’s very clear that I’m an Afro, a Latina. I’m not white, and its diversity speaks for itself, and people will see people doing this job appear to be the rest of the community. And of course, it’s a matter of not only having me, but having my colleagues in the courts, and I think it’s important to me, just looking at us as a collection of citizens from a cross section of the state.

What was your community tied up? What do you like about Yuma?

When I told her I love Yuma, I told her how shocking I was to reach this point, and when I arrived at Yuma at age 14, I thought I would say those words. Because there wasn’t. Yuma has given me every opportunity to serve and excel.

Connecting with my community, being elected by them, it was an incredible moment for me… to put public trust in me to make the decision to be the primary parent of my child. In the case, a person was convicted of a crime, and I have the discretion to decide whether they will stay in the community or go to prison under supervision, in this case my community to my community What is the best in this case to help me to confer power and responsibility? They re-elected me many times to make those decisions, and connected me to them in a way that is hard to see and explain their first decision.

I’m Yuma. Yuma created me. I’m not where I am without my community. They are the people who thought I should come out here and be a judge of the Court of Appeals for them. They are the people who wrote letters to the governor and wrote people on both parties to take me here.

I’m Yuma. I’m in the countryside. I’m here.