News

U.S. attorney announces concurrent jurisdiction role

By Lightning Reports, Published: July 11, 2022

Annabelle Chambers, a state prosecutor with North Carolina’s 43rd Prosecutorial District serving Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Macon, Swain, Haywood and Jackson counties, was sworn in Monday as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Criminal Division in Asheville.

U.S. Attorney Dena J. King administered the oath for Chambers, who has been working under District Attorney Ashley Welch, a Hendersonville native.

Concurrent jurisdiction allows for prosecution in either state or federal court. The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the District Attorney’s Office have established this formal partnership to ensure that the appropriate venue for prosecution is selected. The goal of this partnership is to make counties within the jurisdiction of the 43rd Prosecutorial District safer through a coordinated enforcement effort.

“The SAUSA program is an important tool we can use to make communities safer by identifying and prosecuting cases in federal court that result in the greatest local impact," King said.

“Cooperation across all levels of government is one of the most effective weapons we have in combatting crime," Welch said. “The SAUSA program has proven an amazing tool for vigorous prosecution of criminal activity in the 43rd Prosecutorial District. This program demonstrates how a strong, successful and sustained federal and state partnership can help us safeguard our communities. I thank U.S. Attorney King for her continued support of SAUSA and anticipate additional initiatives involving her office and mine.”

As a dually-sworn state and federal prosecutor, Chambers will be primarily responsible for criminal cases arising out of the 43rd Prosecutorial District involving the violation of federal criminal statutes. She will remain on the staff of the District Attorney’s Office but will serve in all respects as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in charge of overseeing the progression of federal cases from the initiation of federal charges to disposition and sentencing.

Before joining the District Attorney’s Office, Chambers was an associate with Asheville Legal, Wimer Snider, P.C. Before that, Chambers was an assistant state attorney with Florida’s 18th Judicial Circuit in Brevard County, where she prosecuted felony cases in Circuit Court. Chambers received her law degree from Stetson University College of Law and her undergraduate degree from Sewanee, The University of the South, in Tennessee.