Superior Court Judge Rogelio Flores began his judicial duties in January 1987 as the first court commissioner for the North Santa Barbara County Municipal Court. In 1997, he was appointed to the municipal court bench and in 1998 he was elevated to the Santa Barbara County Superior Court. He received his law degree from the UCLA School of Law in 1979 From 2000 through 2012 Judge Flores was assigned to various collaborative courts in Santa Maria including the Substance Abuse Treatment Court-SATC, (Drug Court), and drug treatment mandated by passage of Proposition 36. He was also responsible for the Mental Health Court and calendars specializing in co-occurring disorders. He presided over the DUI High Risk Offender Treatment Court and helped organize the first Veterans Treatment Court in Santa Barbara County. Judge Flores has been a guest lecturer at The National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada. From October 2012 through February 2016 he was assigned to a felony trial calendar while presiding over the Veterans Treatment Court. From March, 2016 until the he recently retired, Judge Flores had been assigned to the Lompoc Division of the Santa Barbara County Superior Court. Since being transferred to Lompoc, he helped organize their Veterans Treatment Court, a Domestic Violence Review calendar, a mental health calendar and was in the process of bringing drug court to this one-judge courthouse. He is a past president of the Latino Judges of California, and he is a member of the National and California Association of Drug Court Professionals. Judge Flores was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals in 2008 and he sat on their Executive Committee. He has lectured extensively both nationally and internationally on the topic of collaborative jurisprudence.
Recently Judge Flores has been working with the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the United States Department of State, Bureau of Narcotics Affairs, OAS/CICAD, among other agencies in overseeing the creation of drug courts in Mexico and Latin America. He is the immediate past co-chair of the Collaborative Courts Advisory Committee for the Judicial Council of California, and he sat on the Mental Health Issues Implementation Task Force for the Judicial Council. He has previously received Certificates of Recognition from the California State Legislature, Congress-woman Lois Capps, the National Latino Peace Officers Association, the County of Santa Barbara, the San-ta Barbara County Probation Peace Officers Association, the City of Santa Maria, the Santa Maria Chamber of Commerce, the City of Santa Barbara, the Community Recovery Network and he was granted the Achievement Award for 2001 by the Santa Barbara Hispanic Achievement Council. In 2012 he was presented the “Hero of Justice Award” from the Legal Aid Foundation of Santa Barbara County. Judge Flores was elected as a Class A (non-alcoholic) Trustee to the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous in New York in 2007. In December, 2012, Judge Flores was recognized as "Judicial Officer of the Year" by the Chief Probation Officers of California. On April 15, 2018, Judge Flores was awarded the Latino Legacy Award for Public Safety/Government. After 31 years on the bench, Judge Flores retired on May 18, 2018.