Louie Vega

Retired Judge Kern County Superior Court

B.A., Political Science (1978)

Vega presides over Homeless Court and Veterans Court in Kern County, special court sessions held in the community to help veterans and homeless residents clear up unresolved legal cases in order to remove barriers to employment, driving and other activities that help get them back on their feet.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Vega a Kern County Superior Court judge in 2008. In 2013, Vega launched Family Reunification Day, which celebrates the hard work that parents separated from their children put into getting them back.
After teaching high school social studies and serving as a counselor, Vega decided to pursue a legal career and earned his juris doctorate from UCLA in 1983. He practiced civil and criminal law and then served as a court commissioner from 1990 to 2008.
Later, as the first Latino television news reporter in Kern County, he broke racial barriers, reporting and anchoring for the then-local NBC affiliate, KERO-TV, in the 1970s.
Vega earned a Purple Heart for his service as an Army helicopter crew chief during the Vietnam War; he was involved in two helicopter crashes (one after it was shot at, one when the engine quit) while flying missions to locate enemy soldiers on the ground.

Notable CSU Alumni in public service