Thomas Eugene Crocco Jr.

Tom Crocco began his legal career as an early hire with the Missouri State Public Defender System in March of 2004 after graduating from the St. Louis University School of Law.  He passed the bar one month later and was appointed an Assistant Public Defender assigned to the Union, Missouri Trial office.  In 2011, he was appointed District Defender in the Troy trial office a position he held for six years before transitioning to private practice.   He is currently in private practice in Troy, Missouri. 

Prior to his service with the Public Defender, Tom worked in the telecommunications industry for 33 years as an engineer, a software developer, a project manager, and finally as a Director in Lucent Technologies’ wireless network division.  Internationally, he spent six years designing and overseeing the construction of wireless networks in Saudi Arabia, West Africa, Nicaragua, Poland, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia.   One of his claims to fame is that he once kissed the then-sitting President of Nicaragua, Doña Violeta Chamorro, who is credited for restoring democracy to Nicaragua after winning the presidency from Daniel Ortega in 1990 at the end of the contra civil war. 

Tom likes to say that his career shift from telecommunications to public defender shows that it is never too late to be what you were meant to be.  Tom is an experienced trial attorney and has contributed to the legal profession at large by authoring Chapter 6 – Search & Seizure Issues in the MoBarCLE publication, Missouri DWI Law and Practice, 2nd edition and is the Chair of MACDL’s Sex Crimes Defense Committee.  Under his chairmanship, the committee published a  comprehensive pre-trial practice aid for attorneys who defend statutory sex crimes.    He has presented at a number of Public Defender and MACDL training events. 

In 2017, Tom was the recipient of the Defender of Distinction award, the highest honor the Missouri State Public Defender can bestow on an attorney.  In his spare time he is an avid pilot and the proud owner of a vintage 1946 Ercoupe airplane.