This is the College’s 48th annual commencement. The event is free and open to the public. Asbell has been the elected district attorney for the past 15 plus years in Bertie, Hertford and Northampton counties.
She was elected as the district attorney for the newly consolidated District 6 which now serves Halifax County as well.
Asbell has prosecuted for the past 22 years in 6B and was an assistant district attorney for seven years before becoming the elected district attorney.
Asbell was the first female district attorney in the eastern district of North Carolina. She started as an assistant district attorney on April 1, 1993. The college notes in a statement, “Asbell is a strong advocate for victims of crime throughout her district and the state of North Carolina. She has 22 years of trial experience as a prosecutor and has tried more than 200 cases before juries in the past 22 years.”
Asbell was recently presented with the 2013 Women of Justice Award in the Public Official Category by the North Carolina Lawyers Weekly magazine.
Asbell is a strong advocate for victims of domestic violence as demonstrated by her commitment to her community and state. She is a board member for the Roanoke-Chowan Domestic Violence Task Force and was a member of the North Carolina Domestic Violence Commission from 2006-2011. During one year in her tenure as district attorney, she had the highest conviction rate for domestic violence offenses in the state of North Carolina. Along with her administrative and courtroom duties as district attorney, Asbell is active in her community and has taken a proactive approach to preventing crime in her district and preventing young people from coming into the court system.
She is active in the public school system as a speaker on topics ranging from domestic violence, drug and gang awareness, to cyber bullying. She and her staff are active in Teen Court in her three counties when the program is running, and she is a member of the “Communities in Schools of Hertford County.” She sits on the Roanoke-Chowan Community College Criminal Justice Advisory Board. Asbell also sponsors the Family of Murdered Victims Support Group which meets monthly at her office to help family members who have lost loved ones to violent crime. During her career, Asbell has served the public in many capacities locally and statewide including:
• Member and past president of the 6B Judicial Bar
• Adjunct professor for the National Advocacy Center where she teaches federal and state prosecutors • Former member of the executive board of the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys • •Instructor for the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys
• Instructor at the North Carolina Institute of Government where she teaches North Carolina prosecutors about various subjects
• Instructor at the Federal Domestic Violence Conference
• Instructor for the Federal OCEDEF Drug Conference where she teaches Investigative Grand Juries for State Prosecutors Asbell is happily to Jimmy Asbell who is the major of the Ahoskie Police Department.
They have two boys, Cole who is 16 years old and Ethan who is 10 years old.
They are members of Center Grove Baptist Church in Ahoskie.
