Service ∙ Hard Work ∙ Transparency ∙ Integrity
Vo l . 1 , 2 0 1 5
J
onathan Ceseña didn’t catch any fish on the day that he was
almost murdered.
The son of a Santa Clara cop was a young prosecutor in a big
city three years ago, working the legal frontlines of Chicago’s
youth gang violence. At the end of this September work day, he
put down his hefty caseload to go salmon fishing with a friend in
the harbor. It was one of those Chicago dusks where Assistant
State’s Attorney Ceseña felt that his future was as wide and open
as Lake Michigan.
Jonathan rode his bike from home, texting: “I’ll be there barring
some disaster.” He got to the water’s edge before his friend, a
tax accountant with the right rods and the know-how. Jonathan
knew fly fishing, but this was his first time harbor salmon fishing.
It was quiet. The only folks around were a man fishing on the
dock and a couple of guys – clearly a couple - taking a stroll.
There were four others – two young women, two men - a ways
away. Jonathan noticed them – their loud voices really - the
way someone might hear thunder on a nice day. They weren’t
T he Confrontation
bothering him, but they looked to the prosecutor like
gang members. Jonathan decided to lock up his bike.
As he waited for his friend, he noticed that the couple
was walking up the path toward the gang bangers.
Mentally, an alarm went off. Why aren’t they paying
attention? He heard the attack before he saw anything,
the tell-tale intensity of the curses and cries. Jonathan
ran toward it, still wearing his backpack filled with tackle
and his cell phone in the bottom so it wouldn’t get
wet. He saw one of the victims sprinting away, with a
gang banger close behind. He called out: “Leave them
the @#$%^& alone, I’m calling the cops!” He couldn’t
really, of course, because his phone was buried.
Jonathan never saw himself as the hero type. Always
a big guy, he was an athlete who loved the ferocious
hits during his college rugby games. But he was a softspoken surfer, too. In court, he was on the laid-back
end of the spectrum. He just could not abide bullies.
That was a Ceseña family value. That was what made
Jonathan run toward the trouble as fast as he could …
until one of them saw him, turned around and yelled at
Jonathan: “You want to $#%^& with us?”
The prosecutor slammed on the proverbial brakes,
slipped completely off his feet in the wet grass, and
landed on his back. The gang member pounced and
punched him in the face.
They grappled, Jonathan putting him in a chokehold
and wondering wildly where the other guy was.
He heard the girls yelling “Edgar! Edgar! Leave him
alone.” Jonathan made a mental note of the name and kept punching.
(continued on page 2)
THE WEST WING
1
Then, he looked up. The other guy
was standing over him, a liquor bottle
held high over his head.
Jonathan recalled that his brother
had a friend, an LA bartender, who
had been hit with a bottle and ended
up in a six-month coma. He threw off
the gang banger and rolled on his
stomach to avoid the blow. He looked
up again. Now the bottle in the man’s
hand was broken, jagged.
Jonathan tried to scuttle away. They
came at him, kicking, punching. He
grabbed the same guy he had before
and held him by the throat, scratching
him. Jonathan finally leapt to his feet
and ran. They ran, too.
He only began to walk when he
realized he was safe, assessing his
condition. His eye was quickly swelling
shut. Through his other eye he saw the
fisherman he had seen earlier walking
away, not wanting any trouble. And …
what the hell, Jonathan thought, was
he urinating on himself? Warm liquid
was running down his legs. He looked
down. Blood was gushing from the
side of his Patagonia fleece. It was
bad, but he was breathing. He thought,
they didn’t cut my lung. He took off
the fleece and pushed it as hard as
he could against where the blood was
pouring from and squeezed his arm
tight against it. Stop the bleeding. He’d
seen that in the movies.
That was when his buddy arrived, walking
toward him with a look of astonishment
on his face. Call 911, Jonathan told him.
He kept walking. He knew there was a
hospital nearby and he was headed for
it, banking that he could get there without
passing out. His white shirt now saturated
with blood, Jonathan walked directly
through a women’s fitness group doing
crunches in the park.
Just then, a Chicago police officer pulled
up. Jonathan told the cop he could make
it to the hospital on his own, gave a short
description of his attackers, and kept
walking.
As he made it to the hospital parking lot,
he turned to his friend and woozily said
“I’m not going to make it. Get help.” An
enlisted concierge grabbed a wheelchair
and put Jonathan in it, sprinting.
When he finally got to a gurney, the pain
hit. He could barely breathe, things were
growing dark. He heard a nurse say, “He’s
starting to get cold.”
Jonathan gave himself two immediate
goals. 1. Stay awake. 2. Tell the police
as much as you can. They summoned an
officer to his side. He told him as much
detail he could dredge up: approximate
defendant and his family and nervously
gave her testimony. Zhazil stayed by
her side and when she became sick,
drove her back to the FJC. Morgan Hill
Police Detective Mindy Zen intercepted
a birthday card for the couple’s 4-yearold son, blaming the victim for keeping
them apart. The detective knew the boy
would rely on his mother to read the
card to him.
The defendant, ignoring a restraining
order, repeatedly threatened to physically
hurt his ex-girlfriend. Thankfully, she
could turn to Prosecutor Patricia
Henley and the Santa Clara County
Family Justice Center which helped her
several times before, during, and after
trial to obtain restraining and child support
orders, relocation assistance, and court
support.
The victim, supported by FJC victimwitness team member Zhazil Gurbiel
(Silicon Valley FACES), faced the
The weekend before trial, the
defendant’s father showed up drunk
at the victim’s house while she was
at work and demanded to see his
grandchildren. The victim’s mother, who
was watching the children, refused. He
called her names, threatened to shoot
her, and stab the victim. During the trial,
Supervising Deputy District Attorney
Stephen Lowney and Gilroy Police
Detective Justin Matsuhara worked
together to get an arrest warrant for the
father. He was arrested for the threats
as he walked through the court metal
height, weight, hair color, what they
were wearing. After that that he was
transported to another hospital for
trauma patients.
It was there that a doctor noticed that
there were other wounds: one on his
head, a through-and-through gash
on his upper left arm, and another
on his leg. As he lay there, Jonathan
began helping with the prosecution of
his still-unidentified attackers. He told
an evidence tech to take photos of
his wounds before they were stitched
up, his eye before the swelling went
down. He gave his statement to a
detective, saying one of his assailants
was named “Edgar.” The detective
paused, “Edgar? Are you sure? I’ll be
back.”
When he came back he gave
Jonathan admonishments and a
photo lineup. The prosecutor picked
out Edgar definitively, 100 percent
sure.
After 70 stitches and blood
transfusions, visitors and calls came
in: his parents, his wife, co-workers,
bosses, The State’s Attorney, Mayor
Rahm Emanuel.
“He literally looked like a jigsaw
puzzle,” said Tisa Morris, Jonathan’s
(continued on page 4)
detectors to hear the jury’s verdict. With
DDA Henley’s presentation of the facts
and the teamwork of the FJC, the jury
found defendant guilty of stalking.
----------The transient victim was alive today
because he had run away from a knifewielding attacker. Now that Investigator
Dominick Ha found the victim,
Prosecutor Daniel Rothbach knew he
had to keep the victim in the loop and
work fast, before he disappeared again.
The defense claimed, at worst, this
was an assault with a deadly weapon.
DDA Rothbach convinced the jury
that the only reason the bloody attack
stopped short of a slaying was because
the victim was able to get away. The
defendant was found guilty of attempted
murder.
THE WEST WING
2
Q&A
...with Kim Connors,
Deputy District Attorney
DDA Kim Connors has worked the graveyard shift on
University Avenue in Berkeley as a student aide. She has
worked Story and King as a San Jose cop. And for one
memorable year she worked within the halls of power as a
White House Fellow - a once-in-a-lifetime experience she
was introduced to by fellow Cal Bear and later San Jose
Police Chief Chris Moore who went there to work for the
Attorney General. After an extreme vetting process, the
community prosecutor - who wrote a unique memo on the
safety of child car seats - was chosen for one of the most
exclusive fellowships in the world. It began less than two
weeks before a terrorist crashed a plane into the Pentagon.
Q: What was it like to be in the White House? What was it
like to meet the President? What was your initial impression
when you walked into that iconic place?
A: Complete awe. Absolute and complete awe.
Q: Was it surrealistic to be sitting in the Oval Office and
having the President just chatting to you guys?
A: We got to meet with the President, I think, three or four
times. I will say, one really interesting thing about George Bush.
You know he’s not the best public speaker. We have all heard
the jokes. He’s very good in a small group, which I think is part
of the reason he ended up being successful and people aren’t
really sure why he was so successful.
Q: Each of the Fellows goes into a specialty area and you
went into Housing and Urban Development.
A: I met with HUD Secretary (Mel) Martinez and Deputy
Secretary (Alphonso) Jackson. I said, “Why do you even want
to speak to me? I’m a cop and a prosecutor. What can I possibly
do with this?” Deputy Secretary Jackson looked at me and
said, “Because we both believe if you can be a cop, you can
do anything.”
I started there on September 1. September 11th happened. I
think I was back at work on September 13th or the 14th and
the Secretary called me in and they said, “The union is saying
they will go on strike if we don’t do something about security.”
They basically had no security, because nobody views HUD as
something you’d be worried about. Except in the Oklahoma
City bombing, they were actually the main occupants of
that building and they lost more employees than anyone
else did. Nothing was done after that about security. So the
Secretary said, “We freed up X million (I want to say it was
between 18 to 20 million) that we can find right now. Design
us a security system. You must know something about that.
You’re in law enforcement.”
Q: Oh my god.
A: Yeah, that was my reaction. I actually smiled and said,
“Sure. No problem.” Got a few more parameters and went
back and shut my door and called Chris Moore and said,
“You have to help me with something, because I have no
idea how to do this. I don’t even know the first thing about
this.”
Q: So what happened?
A: Over the next couple months, many people were really
good at helping me and we got security up and running. And
we got metal detectors in and we got badge I.D.’s in, we got
everything card-keyed.
Q: At the end of it, you came back and you are a
prosecutor again.
A: They were kind enough to offer me a permanent job to
stay, but that was an easy decision. This is definitely what I
love. That was really cool, great, and amazing, but it didn’t
give me the same satisfaction as this.
Q: What things were infused in you after spending a
year working in federal government?
A: I actually learned to stop judging so much. And what
I mean by that is: we got top secret security clearances,
and we got to know what did happen and why, and it’s that
information that you can’t share. So people aren’t happy
with your decision, they aren’t happy with what you do and
you can’t tell them why you did it. And I think I really learned
to stop being so judgmental and start assuming good
intentions sometimes.
THE WEST WING
3
WHAT’S GOING ON?
Sherrie Johnson, Senior
Paralegal, received the District
Attorney’s Office Employee
Excellence Award for February
2015.
WEST WING GALLERY
(CLICK each photo to read a story in electronic version or visit www.santaclara-da.org)
Vimlesh Prasad, Utility Worker,
received the District Attorney’s
Office Employee Excellence
Award for April 2015.
Quang Bui, Investigative
Graphic/Media Specialist, was
named one of the County’s Top 10
Outstanding Employees of 2014.
DA Rosen’s Swearing-In Ceremony
Baker to Vegas
Kelly Meeker, Deputy District
Attorney, received the 2015
MADD Award.
Miguel Valdovinos, Deputy
District Attorney, received the
Community Action Partnership of
Madera County’s Victims’ Rights
Award.
... The Confrontation
(Cont. from page 2)
bureau chief in the juvenile division. Jonathan
was aghast that his boss was there and asked
to be covered up. She said she jokingly scolded
him about his confrontation: “Are you crazy?
This is Chicago!”
Later he would hear that the gay couple had
to be tracked down – by Interpol no less. They
were from London, tourists who had gotten
away mostly unscathed. They had no idea what
Jonathan had done.
“I don’t think I regret doing it,” he said. “Laying
there thinking, ‘This could be it’ everything
becomes instantly valuable. My wife, my family,
fresh air, the sun, making fun of my brothers.
Every second should be valued. I’ve wanted
to be a Santa Clara prosecutor since I was
a 14-year-old boy. I remember sitting in the
interview thinking, ‘Just the thought that they
think I’m good enough for an interview, that’s
awesome’.”
Michelle Avila, REACT Director
The police and the State’s Attorney’s
Office went all out. An investigator
chauffeured his wife who had been
away on business, to his side from
the airport. They found Edgar Diaz
within a week, hiding in a closet. Diaz’s
statement: “If this is about the stabbing
of that ASA by the lake, I had nothing to
do with that.” He had scratches on his
neck. The stabber turned himself in and
quickly pled.
The trial, from Jonathan’s perspective,
was surrealistic. The defendant and
his family mad-dogged him. Jonathan
looked right back. Diaz, who was out
on bond for a gun and drug charge
when he attacked the prosecutor, got 25
years in prison. Luis Coto, the stabber,
got four years.
Jonathan was back at work in less than
a month after he was attacked.
In his first trial back he took extra time
to soothe the worries of a victim that the
kid who had broken into her car would
not come and find her when he got out
of custody. He knew how she felt.
San Jose Job Corp
Now he’s two thousand
miles away and working as a
prosecutor back in the county
where he grew up. There are
scars, of course, but thankfully
no nightmares.
“I never want to forget what
happened because of how it
makes me cherish everything.
If I ever forget, then it will
make me fall back into that
category of ‘Oh, this is just a
misdemeanor.’”
On one of their recent fishing
trips, he and his father were
walking along the bank of a
river. His dad said, “Hey, sorry
we didn’t catch any fish.”
“Pop,” Jonathan said, “that’s
not what matters.”
THE WEST WING
4