Leadership

J. Charles Smith, III
NDAA President 

Elected in 2006, J. Charles “Charlie” Smith III is the State’s Attorney for Frederick County, Maryland. He is currently in his 5th elected term.

Born and raised in East Baltimore, State’s Attorney Smith was one of five children of Charles and Norma Smith. He attended Eastern Tech High where football him to college. Smith ultimately graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a Bachelor of Science in Finance in 1986. He then pursued a Juris Doctorate from the University of Baltimore School of Law, graduating cum laude, with high honors, in 1990.

He began prosecuting cases in the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office in 1991. After a brief stint in private practice, in 1998 SA Smith returned to prosecuting in Frederick County, Maryland serving as the Chief of the Special Victims Unit and as the office’s Deputy State’s Attorney (First Assistant).

He has since prosecuted many of his Office’s high profile violent crime and death penalty cases. Mr. Smith has the distinction of trying the first Computer Crimes case in the State of Maryland (an Internet child sexual exploitation case).

He is a Past President and Treasurer of the Maryland State’s Attorneys Association. SA Smith is very involved in the Frederick County and City communities, serving on numerous Boards such as the Frederick Rescue Mission, Faith House, Frederick Hospice, and Child Advocacy Center Boards.

His service and commitment to NDAA started in 1999 when he began teaching at the National Advocacy Center (NAC) in Columbia, SC. Over the years, SA Smith taught all the Trial Advocacy Courses, Career Prosecutor Courses, as well as other courses such as Cross Examination and Juror Selection. Once the NAC was closed, Smith continued to teach courses for NDAA regarding Brady, Ethics, and other topics.

In 2015, he elected by his peers as the Maryland State Director for NDAA. SA Smith also served on the NDAA Legislative Committee since 2016, the Executive Committee as NDAA Treasurer since 2019, and on the Investment Committee since 2020. He stepped down as NDAA Treasurer when elected as NDAA President-Elect in 2022. One of his favorite NDAA involvements was serving as the NDAA NGO in 2017 in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for the Al-Nashiri prosecution of the 2000 bombing of the U.S.S. Cole (which killed 17 U.S. Navy sailors).

State’s Attorney Smith is married to his wife, Desiree’ Smith, a recently retired Special Agent for the FBI. They live in Middletown, Maryland where they raised their four children: Mattie, Hank, Delaney, and Carson.

Officers
President-Elect – Summer Stephan, San Diego, CA
Chair of the Board – John Flynn, Buffalo, NY
Treasurer – Jennifer Webb-McRae, Bridgeton, NJ

NDAA Board of Directors