JON'S BIO
As a career prosecutor Jonathan Fish has fought in and out of the courtroom to keep our communities safe. He dedicated most of his career to fighting major narcotic dealers, methamphetamine manufacturers and violent gang members. He will insure that our communities remain safe through efficient, fair and vigorous enforcement of the laws in his courtroom.
As a young man, Jonathan Fish, was deeply inspired by friends and family who were military heroes and law enforcement (one of whom was killed while on duty). Because of that influence, law enforcement and service to country have always been the priority in his career and his personal politics. His interest in politics dates back to 1976 when he personally met Bob Dole who was then the Vice-President candidate on the Ford/Dole ticket. He worked as a volunteer on city council, Senatorial and Presidential races. In 1985 he met his personal hero, Ronald Reagan, and decided to study political science.
An excellent student and athlete, Jonathan went on to become a scholarship-student at Claremont McKenna College where he studied political science and economics and held positions of leadership while working his way through school. Jonathan went to work briefly with the United States Commission on Civil Rights under the Reagan administration beginning his dedication to public service.
Before beginning his life’s calling in the Law, Jonathan was hired by a highly selective organization called Teach For America which was designed to help the country deal with the teacher shortage crisis. He taught English on the secondary level to teens in inner-city schools and coached basketball. It was there that he saw the damage that criminal street gangs reap upon the decent hard-working families in our society. He recounts as an example one occasion when he wrestled a loaded revolver out of a student’s control during class, and cited “It’s hard to expose children to great literature when their primary goal at school is to avoid bullets”.
Jonathan chose to attend California Western School of Law where he earned a scholarship for tuition and where he concentrated largely in criminal law related classes and trial skills. He was on Law Review and received the following awards: American Jurisprudence Award (highest grade in class) for Torts, Trial Advocacy and a District Attorney’s Office Internship; the Corpus Juris Secundum Award (best overall student) for Torts; the Legal Skills Award; Best Trial Advocate Award; and he was the West Coast champion and a national finalist in the ATLA Mock Trial Tournament.
He was hired by and worked briefly for the Kern County District Attorneys Office in 1996 and began his legal career where he dedicated himself to the prosecution of dangerous criminals. Ultimately he specialized in the prosecution of major narcotic dealers, manufacturers of methamphetamine and dangerous criminal street gang members. He maintains a felony trial conviction rate of approximately 90%, prosecuting scores of felonies and obtaining life sentences on dangerous gang members and other threats to our communities.
In 2001, Jonathan was able to successfully prosecute a dangerous and sophisticated criminal who was manufacturing methamphetamine out of his auto shop in Santa Ana. Even though there was no methamphetamine discovered and no eye-witnesses whatsoever, Jon ordered that the trash from the shop be secured and chemically analyzed. Based on this evidence, he was able to prove methamphetamine manufacturing through the testimony of a chemist based on the meth-specific recipe of chemicals that were found in the trash.
In 2000, Jonathan, along with the La Habra Police Department, received the “Community Policing Award” from the Orange County Human Relations Commission.
In 2000, Jonathan was also publicly commended by Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer because of his aggressive and common-sense based prosecutorial style.
As a major narcotics prosecutor, he was assigned in 1999 as the legal spearhead of the Orange County Methamphetamine Lab Task Force for three years. He received hours of specialized peace officer training for advanced investigation of narcotics, methamphetamine labs and the environmental clean up of meth labs. He wrote, reviewed and helped serve over a hundred search warrants in meth lab and other narcotic locations, including the first ‘date rape drug’ lab in Orange County.
While he led this task force more labs were eradicated than at any other time by this Orange County task force. While Jonathan ran this task force, it was deemed “Narcotic Unit of the Year’ in 2000 by the Orange County Narcotic Officers Association. Jonathan received the prestigious ‘Prosecutor of the Year’ award from the OCNOA in 2000 as well.
Jonathan was recognized over hundreds of other prosecutors while prosecuting major narcotic offenders and was awarded the highly prestigious “Prosecutor of the Year” for the Southern California region of the California Narcotic Officer Association in 2001. He was also commended by the DEA in 2003 for his efforts in combating major narcotic violators.
Jonathan spent the last four years prosecuting dangerous gang members as part of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office’s elite TARGET-Gang Task Force where he worked side-by-side with gang detectives to identify and prosecute the deadliest of Orange County’s gang members. He wrote, reviewed and helped serve dozens of search warrants on the homes of dangerous gang members. He prosecuted scores of the most dangerous and murderous gang members in Orange County securing life sentences for murder and prison sentences for felony-level criminal conduct.
In 2006, Jonathan convicted the non-shooting back seat occupant of a car in gang “drive-by” shooting of first degree murder and secured a 50-to-life sentence on him. The shooter in that matter remains at large.
Because of Jonathan’s aggressive and hands-on approach to protecting our community, he has the personal and the professional support of law enforcement all over the county. He has driven meth labs out of our county, taken dangerous gang members off the street and made it harder for drug dealers to get their poison into the hands of our children.
As a life-long Republican, he proudly volunteers when needed and is involved with the California Republican Lawyer Association. He is also a proud member of MADD and the NRA and in 2007 became a Platinum Sponsor of the Orange County Traffic Officers Association Memorial Fund, honoring Police, Sheriff and CHP who lost their lives in the line of duty.
Most importantly, Jonathan is a loyal and devoted family-man. He and his wife Dina are residents of the city of Orange where they are raising their children. They want to instill the values of integrity and humility through their worship of God; the value of family through time spent together; and the values of hard work, devotion and public service through their own devotion to serving our community.
