Meet Eric Zahnd
Eric Zahnd is the Platte County, Missouri Prosecuting Attorney. When he took office, he was the youngest elected prosecuting attorney of a first class county in Missouri. He leads an office of eight attorneys and eight other staff members. The office handles about 15,000 cases each year, ranging from traffic offenses to first degree murder.

Eric has obtained convictions in high-profile murder cases. He convicted a 19-year-old semi-pro football player who killed a 41-year-old woman and a mother who conspired with her husband and daughter to kill her former son-in-law.

Eric has made it a priority to vigorously prosecute crimes against children. He convicted a police officer who had an illegal sexual encounter with a 16-year-old girl and obtained a 25-year sentence against a man who abused a 4-year-old child and sent photos of his crime over the Internet. In 2004, he tried a man for barging into a birthday party and holding children at gunpoint during a string of armed robberies. The jury convicted the defendant on all counts and the defendant is now serving a sentence of life in prison plus 102 years.

Eric’s successes as prosecutor have been recognized nationally as well as locally. He has been recognized on The O’Reilly Factor for his work to protect children on the Web, and a local TV station has called Eric “a leader in the fight against Internet predators.” In 2005, Eric’s work with the Northland Anti-Drug Coalition was recognized in President Bush’s National Drug Control Strategy Update.

Eric was named one of Ingram’s magazine’s “40 Under 40” in 2004, recognizing him as one of the most influential business, government, and community leaders in Kansas City. In 2005, he was one of only two Missouri prosecutors selected as a “Super Lawyer,” an honor given to the top attorneys in Missouri and Kansas.

Eric serves on the board of directors of the Missouri Humanities Council and the William Jewell College Alumni Board of Governors. Prior to his election as prosecuting attorney, he was a member of the Tri-County Domestic Violence Board.

Eric practiced business litigation with Bryan Cave LLP, one of the largest law firms in the United States, prior to his 2002 election as Prosecuting Attorney. He also worked in the Missouri Attorney General’s office and served as a staff assistant to the Governor’s Commission on Crime.

Eric graduated with honors from Duke Law School. He was a member of the Order of the Coif, which recognizes the top 10 percent of law school graduates nationwide. While at Duke, he was editor of a law journal and earned a master’s degree in philosophy. He is the author of an article on Aristotle’s legal philosophy originally published in the journal Law and Contemporary Problems; the article was republished in the book Aristotle and Modern Law.

Eric also graduated summa cum laude from William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, where he majored in Institutions and Policy, a combination of economics, political science, and philosophy as part of the nationally-recognized Oxbridge Honors Study Program. He was elected president of the college’s student body his senior year and studied at Cambridge University in England his junior year.

Eric and his wife Tracy have been married for thirteen years. Tracy has taught third, fourth, and fifth graders in two public school districts. She has served on the Executive Committee of Northland Habitat for Humanity and as Chairwoman of the Platte County Republican Central Committee. Eric and Tracy have two sons. The family attends an area Baptist church, where Eric is a deacon.

Eric is a sixth-generation Missourian. He was raised in Andrew County, where he graduated from Savannah High School first in his class.