Preckshot is used to big changes
Judge candidate altered his career for experience.

Judge candidate Geoff Preckshot hopes to roll to victory on election day, in more ways than one.

Preckshot’s secret weapon in his race to become Division 10 Associate Circuit Judge is his new Segway HT i180 personal transporter. In June, he plunked down $5,000 for the futuristic two-wheeler, and it’s proved an ingenious campaign tool. He rides the vehicle as he solicits votes door to door, and he’s found it gets people talking.

"When they don’t want to talk politics, they’ll still talk to you because you’re riding a cool machine," he said.

Preckshot, 48, is taking on Boone County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Connie Sullivan in the Aug. 8 Republican primary. The winner will face Leslie Schneider in November to replace Judge Chris Kelly, who is stepping down.

Preckshot spent two decades working on the prosecutorial side of law. From 1981 to 1987 he worked as a police officer at the University of Missouri-Columbia. After going to law school at MU, Preckshot worked as an assistant attorney general for the Missouri Attorney General’s Office and then as a Callaway County assistant prosecutor.

He said he’s been considering a run for judge for six or seven years. At one point, Preckshot applied to become a municipal judge for the city of Columbia but didn’t get the job. He was told he was too close to the police and had only worked on one side of the law.

"It became pretty clear to me that I wasn’t going to have the kind of experience that people are going to look for in a judge unless I got a much broader experience than I had," he said.

So in 2004, Preckshot left his job as a prosecutor and went into private practice doing mostly criminal defense and divorce cases.

The swift move from prosecution to defense was a sea change for Preckshot and a shock to some around him.

"There are folks in law enforcement who don’t like me anymore because of the fact that I’m a defense attorney," he said.

Being a defender has opened his eyes to the difficulties of that side of the job, he said, and has given him a more rounded view of the judicial system.

"While I’ve been on the state side so much, I’ve also been on the defendant side," he said. "I understand the significant difference there is between both of those practices."

Former MU professor Rick Hardy said Preckshot would bring a wide range of judicial knowledge to the bench that few people could match.

"It would be very difficult for litigants to pull anything off on him. He knows all the tricks by personal experience," said Hardy, a longtime local Republican stalwart who recently left Columbia to chair the political science department at Western Illinois University.

Preckshot’s move to defense might not be such a big surprise, considering he has a history of making big changes.

Nearly a decade ago, Preckshot made the jump from being an atheist to joining the Catholic Church. He belongs to Our Lady of Lourdes Parish and is a member of the Knights of Columbus.

In another example, he’s progressed from being too terrified to ding a triangle during a church hymn a few years back to playing an entire drum set today for his parish’s contemporary choir. "I always say to my friends, when I decide to take a leap of faith I take a big one," he said.

Preckshot pledged that he would not let his Catholic beliefs interfere with his rulings.

"I understand what I do on the bench is not a reflection of my religious beliefs. It’s a reflection of the laws of the state of Missouri," he said. "I know there are things that are legal in the state of Missouri that I think are immoral as a Catholic."

One example, though highly unlikely to show up in a Boone County courtroom, is an abortion challenge. Preckshot said in that case, he would simply apply the law as it stands.

"I understand as a jurist that the Supreme Court has already decided that and I don’t have any choice," he said.

Preckshot’s family friend and fellow choir member Latricia Vaughn said Preckshot makes a clear distinction between his faith and his work.

"He doesn’t let his religion interfere with the law. He’s made that point to me several times," she said.

Geoff’s wife, Rita Preckshot, is a visible and often-quoted pro-military activist. Geoff Preckshot said he shares his wife’s passion for supporting the troops, though he says he’s less active. "I support our military, and I don’t repudiate anything I’ve said in the past or done in the past about that support," he said. "I’m not withdrawing it an inch."

If Preckshot is elected judge, he said he would try to model his court after that of Circuit Judge Gene Hamilton. "He runs a tight ship," Preckshot said of Hamilton. "He gets his cases done, he is always a gentleman, and I think that’s the kind of professional courtroom I want to run."

Like his move from prosecutor to defense lawyer, running for judge is just another leap of faith for Preckshot. And as he zips door to door on his Segway, he’s not worrying what other people might think.

"It’s one of those things where if you don’t take the effort and you don’t pick up the mantle of opportunity and go for it, you’re going regret it," he said. "I don’t have any regrets trying, even if I lose."

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Reach Jacob Luecke at (573) 815-1713 or jluecke@tribmail.com.

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