Ashley marks one year at LV FBI helm

Kim Smith

Wednesday, March 29, 2000 | 11:18 a.m.

From the moment Grant Ashley saw Jimmy Stewart in "The FBI Story," he knew. He may have been only 6, but he knew how he wanted to spend the rest of his life.

Now two decades into his career and exactly one year into his stint as the special agent in charge of the Las Vegas FBI office, Ashley is positive he made the right choice.

"This office reminds me of the FBI when I joined 20 years ago," Ashley said. "Everyone here works very hard and they're very committed. People in the FBI always talk about the FBI family, and it's alive and well here.

"We're very collegial, but we're also very familial here. We take care of each other and we take pride in what we do. It's very touching."

With this month marking the one-year anniversary of his arrival in Las Vegas as special agent in charge (SAC), Ashley took the time to talk about the events of the last year, the future, and somewhat reluctantly, himself.

Ashley, 44, grew up in Los Angeles with his parents, a brother and a sister. Somehow or another, his parents, who worked in real estate, ended up with three children in the judicial system.

Ashley's brother is a sergeant with the Los Angeles County sheriff's office and his sister is a Superior Court judge.

"How that happened, I don't know, but both my mom and my dad insisted that we be good citizens and contribute to our community," Ashley said.

When his father received a medical discharge from the Army during World War II, he turned around and joined the Merchant Marines because he was determined to do his part, Ashley said.

Ashley was still in high school when he took his first step toward joining the FBI, he said.

"I called the Los Angeles office and told an agent I wanted to be an agent. He asked me how old I was. I told him, and he said, 'Get an accounting degree' and hung up," Ashley said.

Ashley did just that and spent one year as a certified public accountant, tallying up figures for entertainers and rock 'n' roll stars.

The next 19 years as an FBI agent were busy for Ashley. He did stints in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Chicago, San Diego and San Francisco as both an investigator and as a supervisor in white-collar crime and violent crime units.

During the Oklahoma City bombing investigation, Ashley was with a crisis information management unit that set up the data-gathering process for fast-breaking cases.

Ashley calls himself a "generalist."

"No one looks at me and says he's an expert on this or that," Ashley said.

But it is his wide-range of experience that U.S. Attorney Kathryn Landreth appreciates. In the past the Las Vegas office of the FBI has been headed up by people with a great deal of organized crime experience.

"I think his varied background is a very important asset because it adds greater assurances that all of our programs will be given the priority that they deserve," Landreth said. "He's knowledgeable about virtually all of the categories and so he respects and appreciates their importance."

Apparently, the time Ashley spent on fast-breaking cases fits perfectly with his temperament.

"I'm impatient. I want things done yesterday. Today might be OK, but tomorrow is just not acceptable," Ashley said. "I'm exacting."

Landreth sees that aspect of his personality as a plus.

"One of the areas we've seen improvement in my office is in terms of the number of indictments," Landreth said. "We had a record number of indictments returned in 1999, and I think the SAC's impact is felt in those numbers."

Clark County Sheriff Jerry Keller said Ashley has definitely proven himself over the last year and he is glad to have him as a "partner."

"He plays his cards face up on the table, and that's all I can ask for," Keller said.

"Grant Ashley makes commitments, and he keeps them, and he does it with a smile and a degree of cooperation that makes it enjoyable to have him as a partner," Keller said. "He adds his own personality and style, and it's always good when you have someone who is passionate about his work."

An example of Ashley's team spirit was his success in bringing the U.S. Marshals Service together with the other members of the Criminal Apprehension Team, a task force of law enforcement officers dedicated to catching fugitives, Landreth said.

Another of the ideas the Las Vegas FBI office has implemented over the last year involves drug offenders and the task force that is made up of local, state and federal authorities.

"We've changed the direction of our drug investigations. We're going after a much higher level of offender now," Ashley said. "We have tremendous talent out there from the people working the cases to their supervisors, and I realized we weren't being ambitious enough in who we were targeting."

Landreth said she has been seeing a greater number of cases focusing on larger organizations and larger amounts of drugs. Although most of the cases haven't been all the way through the system yet, she said the quality of the cases has improved significantly.

Ashley is planning to target corruption with the formation of a public integrity squad.

There seems to be a perception in the community that because of a lack of cases and prosecutions, the FBI and the U.S. attorney's office isn't committed to ferreting out corruption, Ashley said.

"I'm not declaring that there is public corruption ongoing in the area, but we want to put a vehicle out there where those concerns can be addressed," Ashley said.

Agents within the office will form the squad and any complaints will be handled with the utmost caution.

"By their very nature, these cases are incredibly sensitive, and if we're not careful, we can ruin careers," Ashley said. "I liken it to elephant hunting. You have to be right. You can't have any errors. You've got to identify the right elephant because you only get one shot."