Hon. Roger Cisneros was born in Questa, New Mexico, on Jan.22, 1924. After graduating high school, Cisneros joined the Army Air Corps, serving as a sergeant and cryptographer from 1943 to 1946 with the 333rd Bomb Group in Okinawa, Japan.
After World War II he headed to Longmont, Colorado, where his parents had started a dairy, and then enrolled at the University of Denver, graduating with a business degree in 1950. He later attended DU’s Westminster Law School. He obtained his law degree in 1957 and became one of only five Hispanic lawyers in Colorado. Career highlights included winning Gallegos v. People, a case that involved an involuntary confession by a juvenile. While the Colorado Supreme Court affirmed the conviction, Cisneros took the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and won a reversal.
Cisneros, was first elected to the state Senate in 1964 and served three terms, representing his southwest Denver district. He was Senate Minority Caucus Leader from 1971 to 1972 and 1975 to 1976.
In 1978, Gov. Richard Lamm appointed Cisneros to the state District Court, where he served until 1989 and a brief retirement before returning to the practice of law. As a judge, he specialized in domestic, civil and criminal cases.
