Hon. Veronica M. Nelson is a judge for the 482nd District Court of Texas in Harris County. She was elected to the bench on November 8, 2022.
Nelson presides over the Criminal Court in Harris County.
Prior to her election, she was a staff attorney for the Harris County Courts since 2019. During her tenure in that position, Nelson helped organize the local rules for the Manage Assigned Counsel program and oversaw the start of specialty programs, including the Mental Health, Domestic Violence, and Youthful Offenders.
Before that, she spent ten years working as a prosecutor for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office (2008 to 2018). As such, Nelson served as a senior prosecutor and a chief prosecutor and held assignments in the juvenile, mental health, intake, misdemeanor, felony, and justice of the peace divisions.
She received a bachelor’s degree in legal studies and African-American studies at the University of California, Berkeley in 2003. Nelson went on to complete a J.D. at the University of Alabama School of Law in 2007. While a law student, she received the Dean’s Community Service Award, the Order of Samaritan Medal Winner, and best papers in Adoption, Sentencing, and Mediation. Nelson also served as an intern at the Tuscaloosa Public Defender’s Office.
Nelson was raised in Oakland, California, where her father worked in the optical lab at Kaiser Permanente, and her mother was the Director of Finance at several nursing homes. During high school and college, she played softball and was later inducted into the Cal Berkeley Hall of Fame for softball in 2016.
She is registered as a Democrat.