Jonathan Apirion:
Jonathan has always been interested in law, and started to think about the intersection between the abstract and the necessary during his undergraduate studies in philosophy. He graduated magna cum laude from University of Arizona Law School in 1999. During law school he did a summer internship with a prosecutor’s section of the Army Jag in Fort Carson, Colorado.
Jonathan worked as a felony prosecutor with the Navajo County Attorney’s Office and the Coconino County Attorney’s Office from early 2001 to the end of 2015. He was nominated for Arizona Felony Prosecutor of the Year in 2007 by Navajo County Attorney Mel Bowers and again in 2009 by Navajo County Attorney Brad Carlyon. Jonathan has done more than 65 criminal jury trials, all but the first 9 being felonies. These trial have included a wide range of crimes including murder, sex crimes, aggravated assault, burglary, drug dealing offenses and many others. Jonathan’s status as an attorney is currently retired.
Jonathan has also done volunteer work for organizations in Bangor, Maine (Pine Tree Legal) and here in Flagstaff (DNA people’s ) providing legal aid to those who could not afford it.
CLIMBING AND GUIDING: Between undergraduate and law school Jonathan spent approximately ten years working as a professional climbing guide and instructor. Most of his work was with Outward Bound where he served as Head Climber at different base-camps, led several semester courses and Instructor Development Practicums. He also did a good deal of work for private guiding organizations including American Alpine Institute, Acadia Mountain Guides and others.
Jonathan’s Personal Background:
I was born in Massachusetts after my parents arrived in the U.S. so that my father could take a post-doctoral position at Harvard Medical School. My father spent the rest of his career as a professor at Washington University Medical School in St. Louis, Mo where I spent most of my childhood. My father grew up in Peta Tikva, Israel, where his family worked an orchard. He was the youngest of ten children. I have visited the little house he grew up in. It is half the size of the conference rooms attached to the County Attorney’s office. As my father told it, when it was really cold, the smallest children would be put to bed packed in straw inside apple crates with the ends knocked out. My mother grew up in Paisley, Scotland, also under austere circumstances. They taught me the value of hard work, frugality and using resources wisely. They also taught me that we can change our situation if we are willing to take chances and remain faithful to what we know to be true. Nothing improves unless you are willing to fight for it.
I am married to Cynthia Difranco, a retired veterinarian. Coconino County is our home. We both own homes and property here that represent a long term commitment to this community, not short term investments. We are committed to doing whatever we can to protect the beauty of this place, the small town way of life it offers and the liberty of our citizens. We support efforts to decrease onerous regulation of small business efforts and interference with peoples’ ability to do what they want with their property through unnecessary code enforcement actions. We would like to reduce the distortion of local government priorities by the big money that backs outside developer interests. We reject the idea that all growth is good or that optimistic projections about the value of a larger economy outweighing the negative effects of more traffic, crowding and resource depletion.
Jonathan Apirion