Karen Ashley grew up in upstate New York and attended SUNY Cortland before transferring to Arizona
State University where she majored in education. Ashley graduated with a bachelor’s degree from ASU
and served with the Flagstaff, Phoenix, and Peoria Police Departments. She promoted through the ranks
at the Peoria Police Department and was named Deputy Police Chief in 2000. After retiring in 2007,
Ashley worked for the Arizona Department of Homeland Security for two years as the agency’s Deputy
Director, and then spent eleven years with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office serving as the
agency’s Chief of Investigations. The majority of her law enforcement career she was involved with
CALEA and accreditation programs. Chief Ashley helped to draft the Arizona Law Enforcement
Accreditation Program before she retired from full-time public safety and moved to Charlotte to be
closer to family. Ashley began her career with NCDOJ in August of 2022 as the North Carolina Law
Enforcement Accreditation (NCLEA) Program Manager. She holds a master’s degree in educational
leadership from Northern Arizona University, is a graduate of The Rocky Mountain Leadership Program
and the FBI National Academy.

In his current role with the Special Prosecutions Unit of the North Carolina Department of Justice, Mr.
Brackett represents the State in Superior Court trials, writes briefs, and argues criminal appeals in the
North Carolina Court of Appeals and Supreme Court, and serves as general counsel to the North Carolina
Justice Academy where he ensures that all law enforcement course lesson plans are in compliance with
current law. In addition, Mr. Brackett develops and delivers instruction for the Justice Academy's Police
Law Institute, Warrantless Searches and K9 Law courses.
Career highlights: Mr. Brackett was a prosecutor in Henderson, Polk, Transylvania, and Haywood
Counties for seven years. He has tried 30+ jury cases and has handled nearly 100 pretrial motions to
suppress evidence, and as an ADA tried more than 100 cases and actions. Mr. Brackett served as the
DA’s office point of contact for the Henderson County Drug Task Force Team and helped draft several
search warrants for significant drug investigations. He was the lead prosecutor for Polk County Superior
Court matters, with decision-making authority on which charges were presented for indictment. Before
his career as a prosecutor, he was in private practice handling primarily criminal defense and domestic
matters and served as the attorney for the Transylvania County Department of Social Services.
Mr. Brackett graduated from Furman University with a degree in Political Science in 1999 and obtained
his JD from Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in 2009.