OPAA Member Profile:
David P. Fornshell
Warren County Prosecutor
David P. Fornshell was sworn-in as the 38th Prosecuting Attorney of Warren County on February 17, 2011. David came to the Prosecutor's Office after serving as a partner in the litigation department at Dinsmore & Shohl LLP in Cincinnati. David started his legal practice with Dinsmore in 1999. From 1999-2007, David also served as Prosecuting Attorney for the City of Blue Ash, Ohio.

David is actively involved in the community and serves as a member of the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, Ohio Prosecuting Attorney’s Association Executive Committee, Warren County Drug Task Force Policy Board, Child Advocacy Center of Warren County Steering Committee, and various other boards and committees. David is also the former Chairman of the Warren County Board of Elections, former Chairman of the Warren County Republican Party, and former Secretary of the Warren County Board of MR/DD.

David received the 2018 Prosecutor of the Year Award for the state of Ohio by the Ohio Prosecuting Attorney’s Association, and has prosecuted cases receiving international and national attention, including cases profiled by the BBC documentary series Life and Death Row, Good Morning America, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The UK Daily Mail, and numerous other international and national publications. David also served as a legal consultant for a network television series crime drama.

David has successfully tried high-profile capital murder cases, and has successfully argued multiple cases before the Ohio Supreme Court.  He has also expanded the Prosecutor’s Office’s community outreach efforts. Most recently, David developed and conducted training for board members, officers, and volunteers of charitable, church, booster, youth sports, and other not-for-profit organizations on how to protect against internal organizational theft. He has also developed and conducted age-appropriate presentations for numerous Warren County high school, junior high school, middle school, and elementary school students on topics such as school threats, sexting, date rape, and juvenile decision-making. David has also trained other county prosecutors from around the state of Ohio on topics ranging from the handling of death penalty cases to Ohio’s grand jury process and procedures.

“Since becoming Warren County Prosecutor, ‘excellence’ has been my primary focus for the Warren County Prosecutor’s Office.  Excellence, as I see it, is doing the best job we can on every case, regardless of whether it is a high-profile case or a case about which the public will likely never hear.  Our office’s credibility is on the line in every case we handle, and every case we handle is important to the parties that are involved.  We owe it to all of the involved parties, and to the public as a whole, to treat each case with diligence, professionalism, and integrity, and to look for ways in which we can continuously improve our operations and performance to benefit the Warren County community who we are privileged to serve.”

A seventh-generation Warren County resident, David grew up in the Lebanon/Turtlecreek Township area where he graduated from Lebanon High School. David graduated summa cum laude from Ohio University where he received degrees in Finance and Business Prelaw. David received his Juris Doctor from Pepperdine University School of Law in Malibu, California, finishing in the top 10% of his graduating class.  He and his wife Amy reside in the Lebanon area with their three children. Over the past decade, David has served as volunteer coach for Lebanon youth football, basketball, baseball, and fast-pitch softball organizations, and also serves as an OHSAA basketball official. He and his family are active in Lebanon Presbyterian Church.