Mystery prosecutor drops criminal charges against former NC cop
Editor’s note: Court records uploaded online Dec. 2 revealed that the Forsyth County district attorney handled the prosecution.
A prosecutor dismissed charges Tuesday against a former Mooresville police officer related to allegations of misconduct involving a woman he met, according to court records and the ex-officer’s lawyer.
However, in an unusual mystery, the identity of the prosecutor who made the decision remains a secret.
David S. Brashear was accused in a police warrant of deleting digital evidence from a town of Mooresville cell phone as another Mooresville police officer conducted a criminal investigation involving the 45-year-old Mount Holly resident.
He was arrested in October 2024 on misdemeanor charges of resist, delay and obstruct and accessing computers.
Brashear accessed a computer “to query a state-owned law enforcement database to obtain the personal information of an individual for personal use and without legal justification,” the warrant alleged.
He met the woman at a local establishment, according to a town of Mooresville news release last year. Police didn’t name the business. The incident occurred Oct. 9, 2024, according to the warrant.
Mystery prosecutor not yet revealed
Brashear was scheduled to appear in Iredell County Criminal District Court. He was not in court.
Instead, his lawyer, Daryl Davidson, showed up to inform Iredell County prosecutors and Judge Dale Graham of the dismissal agreement filed by an out-of-county “conflict attorney.” The special prosecutor was assigned to the case because the charges were against a local officer.
But The Charlotte Observer couldn’t determine the name of the mystery prosecutor who dropped the charge.
The charge was dismissed Tuesday without the case being called and without any actual hearing in court. An Observer reporter was in the courtroom for Brashear’s scheduled “disposition” hearing. The case had been continued in courtrooms in Mooresville and Statesville several times over the months.
Brashear’s lawyer wouldn’t say, and Jamie Whitley, an administrative assistant at the Iredell County District Attorney’s Office, didn’t return two calls from the Observer on Tuesday.
Court records on the case weren’t available Tuesday.
Staff in the criminal courts division of the Iredell County Clerk of Superior Court’s office said they can’t upload the court file because the state’s eCourts system was backed up.
Brashear met the woman at a restaurant and looked up information about her on a police database, Davidson told The Charlotte Observer outside the courtroom after he informed a county prosecutor of the secret special prosecutor’s decision to drop the charge against Brashear.
“He won’t be in law enforcement,” Davidson said.
He said he didn’t know if Brashear has found a job, and said the ex-officer had no comment.
This story was originally published October 29, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Mystery prosecutor drops criminal charges against former NC cop."