James Dempsey was a drug dealer and also Brian Dempsey's brother who kidnapped Director Jennifer Shepard, executing her driver in the process. According to NCIS Special Agent Cassie Yates, Dempsey was a frat boy on the surface but was also a brutal force to be reckoned with as he was apparently linked to half a dozen unsolved homicides. Dempsey later held Sheppard, promising to release in exchange for the drugs and his brother who James was unaware had died.