Langhorne Wilson's appellate rulings draw on years as trial judge

Before her appellate nomination, Justice Monique Langhorne Wilson wrote a felony-murder resentencing opinion as a Napa County judge that drew widespread praise.

Sitting by assignment in the 1st District, Division 5, she held in People v. Wilson (2023) that a jury's deadlock on firearm enhancements did not prevent a trial judge from finding beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was the shooter and denying resentencing under SB 1437, which narrowed felony-murder liability.

Distinguishing a deadlock from an acquittal, she wrote, "A not guilty verdict precludes subsequent prosecution on a charge; an inability to reach a decision on an enhancement allegation does not."

University of San Diego law professor Shaun Martin called it "a darn good opinion" on his California Appellate Report blog. A deadlocked jury "found nothing," he explained, leaving the judge to decide who fired.

Earlier that month, Langhorne Wilson had written another Division 5 opinion, People v. Jones (2023), holding that a jury released from the court's control could not decide a prior serious felony allegation.

The judge had excused the jurors following guilty verdicts in a Vallejo murder case, then recalled them four hours later after the prosecutor flagged the unresolved prior conviction.

Nothing showed where the jurors had been or whether they had discussed the case. "Given such a paucity of evidence, we cannot conclude that the jury remained within the court's control," she wrote. The panel affirmed the murder conviction but struck the prior finding and ordered resentencing.

Recommending her for the appellate bench, Division 5 Presiding Justice Teri L. Jackson wrote in July 2023, "Her writing is clear, analytical and concise. There is no question that she brought her wealth of trial court experiences to her approach to appellate cases."

Gov. Gavin Newsom's nomination of Langhorne Wilson to Division 1 was confirmed in January 2024. She faces voters Nov. 3 for the remaining eight years of her predecessor's term.

On Division 1, she held in Ververka v. Department of Veterans Affairs (2024) that an employer defeats a whistleblower retaliation claim by proving it would have acted the same way for legitimate reasons by clear and convincing evidence.

A jury found that Donald Ververka's disclosures contributed to his removal as administrator of the Yountville veterans' home, but that the department would have sought his removal anyway. Treating a contributing factor alone as sufficient for liability, she wrote, "could easily lead to liability based on nothing more than stray remarks."

In June, her opinion revived a lawsuit by former UC Berkeley swimmers alleging years of verbal and psychological abuse by women's swim coach Teri McKeever. Touhey v. Regents of the University of California, A171325.

An Alameda County judge dismissed the suit as untimely. The swimmers regarded the treatment as tough coaching while the university praised McKeever.

She held that the claims plausibly did not accrue until a 2022 newspaper investigation revealed their broader scope, "a closed environment and conduct that, for these athletes, obscured the boundary where coaching became abuse," she wrote.

Acting Presiding Justice Kathleen M. Banke joined but wrote separately, urging legislative attention to delayed discovery.

Langhorne Wilson also sat by assignment on the California Supreme Court this year in Town of Apple Valley v. Apple Valley Ranchos Water (2026).

A 1999 Berkeley Law graduate, she spent six years as a Napa County prosecutor, handling 34 jury trials. She became a court commissioner in 2006, a judge in 2018, and won a contested re-election two years later.

In a 2020 interview, she said she stopped proceedings when participants traded insults. "I cannot tolerate people disrespecting others," she said. Contempt was a last resort: "I was taught to take a recess before thinking about contempt."

She is a founding member of California Women Judges, and wrote a February newsletter article offering advice to judges facing election challenges. She speaks Nov. 5 on a San Francisco panel on appellate legal writing.