The Hon. Carolina V. Lugo is a judge for the Los Angeles County Superior Court in California. She was appointed to the bench in 2018 by former Governor Jerry Brown. She filled the vacancy created by the retirement of the Hon. Kenji Machida (Ret.).
She is a registered Democrat.
Judge Lugo received her B.A. from the University of California, Riverside. She went on to earn her J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law.
After completing a year-long clerkship for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office in 2000, Lugo joined the D.A.'s office full-time as a deputy district attorney assigned to the Family Violence Division. She remained there until her appointment to the bench in 2018.
Lugo was named the DDA of the Month in May 2015 by the Association of Deputy District Attorneys for her efforts in securing a first-degree murder conviction against Eduardo Villareal in 2010. He was found guilty of killing his then-girlfriend Zurisaday Bonilla and their newborn daughter when he slammed his SUV into the Boyle Heights home that she and her family were in. He also received six attempted murder charges for the family members, some of whom were seriously injured in the crash.