Mitch de Leon
|
A U.S. District Judge sentenced
the former chief of police of a New York federal veterans hospital to 10 years
of imprisonment due to his involvement in the conspiracy to torture, rape, and
murder women. The alleged intentions of the convicted officer was identified to
have stemmed from Internet fetish forums he reportedly frequently visited.
Richard Meltz, who worked as a
police chief at a Massachusetts veteran affairs medical center, pleaded guilty
to the charges connecting him with two conspiracies to abduct, torture, and
kill women. He was charged with two other men who he allegedly established
contact via online message boards. These websites reportedly encourage the
sharing of brutal sexual fetishes.
"I conclude that Mr. Meltz
presents a danger to the community," U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe
said. "There could have been no question in his mind that these kidnapping
plots were real."
The situation of the sentenced
66-year-old ex-cop is considered as one of the numerous cases in New York in
which no person was actually abducted or hurt, but the possibility of the fantasy
plots to turn into reality gradually becomes a tangible ploy.
Prior to reading the sentence,
Peter Brill, the lawyer of the accused, tried to convince the judge to grant
his client a lenient punishment. In addition, the attorney pointed out that Meltz
needed mental counseling to treat his condition. Brill claimed that a prison
sentence will not provide his client the help he badly needed.
"I don't mean to make this
sound silly but this was a hobby of Mr. Meltz's for many, many, many
years," Brill said in an attempt to explain his client's tendency to
indulge in violent fantasizes. "And then, of course, the Internet gets
invented," he added.
One of the targeted
"victims" of the three conspiring men was an undercover Federal
Bureau of Investigation agent. Investigators have verified that the FBI agent
was the topic of the many email exchanges and phone calls among the men.
Court records show that Meltz
was in the police and law enforcement industry for roughly 30 years prior to
his arrest in 2013. He was taken into police custody after FBI agents began
arresting suspected individuals who might be connected with Gilberto Valle, an
ex-police officer charged with killing women then eating their body parts to
satisfy his cannibalism fetish.
The two men who conspired with
Meltz were identified as Michael Van Hise and Christopher Asch. Both were
convicted by a federal jury in March.