Prosecutors appeal ‘Cannibal Cop’ case


By Sarina Trangle

Prosecutors want another go-around with a former Forest Hills police officer, known as the “Cannibal Cop,” who got a judge to toss out his prior conviction on conspiring to kidnap, kill and eat women.
Manhattan Federal Court Judge Paul Gardephe sentenced Gilberto Valle last week to the year behind bars he served during his case and a year of supervised release, during which he must continue mental health treatment, avoid contact with women prosecutors described as targets, stay off any sexual fetish websites and forums and consent to the government using a computer monitor to ensure compliance, according to court documents.
Hours after the judge handed down the sentence, federal prosecutors filed an appeal asking that the jury’s initial conviction of conspiracy to commit kidnapping stand.
A jury found Valle guilty in March 2013 of superseding his authorized access while searching a Federal Bureau of Investigation database for details about women and of conspiring to commit kidnapping.
But this summer, Gardephe granted a request made by Valle’s attorney and overturned the conspiracy conviction while authorizing a new trial on that count.
The FBI began investigating the 30-year-old Forest Hills resident after his wife said she found graphic pornography on his computer and detailed plans to kidnap and torture women.
Agents then found chats and e-mails Valle exchanged with alleged co-conspirators, extensive files on at least five women who prosecutors said he planned to abduct and Internet searches for rope and chloroform.
The cop worked for the NYPD for six years prior to his arrest in 2012.
Gardephe concluded that prosecutors’ use of exchanges between Valle and three alleged co-conspirators in New Jersey, England and India or Pakistan on the sexual fantasy website Dark Fetish Network did not illustrate any concrete steps taken by Valle to plot kidnappings.
“This is a conspiracy that existed solely in cyberspace,” Gardephe wrote in his opinion. “Dates for ‘planned’ kidnappings pass without comment, without discussion, without explanation and with no follow-up. The only plausible explanation for the lack of comment or inquiry about allegedly agreed-upon and scheduled kidnappings is that Valle and the others engaged in these chats understood that no kidnappings would actually take place.”
In their appeal, prosecutors argued Valle actively worked towards the kidnappings by gathering information about where targets lived and worked, offering to mail two of them PBA cards in a bid to earn their trust, meeting one woman for lunch and researching how to incapacitate victims with chloroform.
They contended that Gardephe wanted the government to explain Valle’s communications above and beyond how such communications are typically handled in court, and that an FBI agent had described how the agency determined which of Valle’s exchanges were fantasy and which were not.
“Far from being irrational, the jury’s verdict was well-supported by the record of Valle’s communications, preparations and post-arrest statements, which demonstrated a genuine intent to kidnap,” the appeal read. “Judge Gardephe disagreed.”
Valle’s attorney did not respond to requests for comment.