Eric G. Zahnd v. Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel, Supreme Court of Missouri

After the conclusion of a child sexual abuse criminal case, the Prosecuting Attorney of Platte County, Missouri, Eric G. Zahnd, issued a news release accurately describing letters written by prominent community members to the trial court in support of the defendant, Darren L. Paden, with respect to his sentencing. Mr. Paden was a confessed and convicted child molester, and a diagnosed pedophile. The letters had been sent directly to the trial court, without notice to the prosecutor and placed in the court’s case file without designating them as confidential. Thus, the letters were a matter of public record. In the news release, Mr. Zahnd identified the letter writers and characterized them as “appear[ing] to choose the side of a child molester over the child he repeatedly abused.” The Missouri Supreme Court, without written opinion, publicly reprimanded Mr. Zahnd for issuing the news release. The question presented is whether, consistent with the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, an attorney may be disciplined as being unethical for telling the truth about information in the public record in a news release after a criminal case has been adjudicated.