Robert George Babcock

Robert G. Babcock (Bob) specializes in criminal defense litigation and wrongful conduct investigations throughout New York state and federal courts. He represents individuals, businesses and other entities under investigation or charged by the government with committing criminal offenses. Bob crafts unique defense strategies for clients facing criminal charges ranging from simple misdemeanors pending in local courts to complex cases involving white-collar crime, organized crime, drug trafficking and firearms offenses, and violent crime offenses pending in the county and federal district courts of New York.

Bob brings years of criminal trial experience to Tully Rinckey and its clients as the lead attorney for the firm’s Capital Region Criminal Defense Practice Group. He spent most of his 30-plus-year career in the courtroom, first serving as an assistant district attorney for the Queens, New York District Attorney’s Office, then as a special assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, before opening his own criminal defense practice in Manhattan and Hartford, Connecticut. Bob was also internal investigations counsel to a large U.S. bank and later served as an attorney advisor to a federal government agency.

As a prosecutor, Bob was a member of the Queens DA’s Special Victims and Narcotics Investigations Bureaus where he investigated and prosecuted sex crimes, crimes against children and the elderly, and narcotics trafficking offenses. As a member of the Homicide Investigations Bureau and the DEA-NYPD Redrum T-32 Unit that investigated drug-trafficking homicides for the EDNY U.S. Attorney’s Office, Bob’s team apprehended and convicted Cali and Medellin cartel operatives committing kidnappings and murders throughout Brooklyn and Queens. His work on the Los Tuzos investigation is highlighted in the book “The Takedown” by Jeffrey Robinson.

As a defense attorney, Bob has handled several high-profile cases in state and federal courts. Bob conducted the investigation of the Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs shooting at Club New York that culminated in Combs’ acquittal on all charges. His work in the Linda Henning kidnapping and murder of New Mexico banker Girly Chew Hossencofft was chronicled in the book “September Sacrifice” by Mark Horner, where Bob raised a Manchurian Candidate defense and secured a deal of 27 months in prison in exchange for his client telling investigators the location of the victim’s body. Bob represented a Connecticut police sergeant charged with federal narcotics trafficking and successfully argued entrapment after investigators provided the sergeant with 500 grams of sham cocaine to trigger a mandatory minimum prison sentence if convicted. The sergeant ultimately pleaded guilty to Hobbs Act Extortion and received 75% less prison time on the reduced charge. Bob later defended a 23-year-old babysitter charged with capital murder after an infant in her care died when he struck his head on a metal doorframe during a game with a sleeping bag. Bob successfully demonstrated through forensic and testimonial evidence that the fatal blow was accidental, leading to a manslaughter plea and reduced sentence.

Bob has extensive experience with forensic evidence investigation, collection, analysis and presentation. Bob completed an internship with Dr. Henry C. Lee, Chief Criminologist, Connecticut State Police Forensic Science Laboratory, where he studied ballistics, hair and fibers, questioned documents, latent prints, toxicology, serology and arterial blood spray patterns. Bob worked on the Richard Crafts murder investigation and conducted the infamous frozen pig carcass woodchipper examination that was subsequently used to convict Crafts of the murder of his wife, although her body was never found. Bob is a subject matter expert on law enforcement agency investigative procedures and tactics, and has received law enforcement training from the NYPD, DEA, Connecticut and New York State Police, Queens County District Attorney’s Office, and the U.S. Department of Justice. Bob is a certified criminal trial attorney by the National Institute for Trial Advocacy and a certified fraud examiner.