By Eric Jankiewicz
A panel of three judges is the latest line in an ongoing legal debate over whether or not the carrion fantasies of a Forest Hills cop are enough to put him in jail again.
Gilberto Valle – known as the Cannibal Cop – was arrested in 2012 after his wife discovered Valle’s online correspondences where he mused over plots to kidnap and cook his wife and other women. After serving 21 months in prison his sentence was overturned by Judge Paul Gardephe in Manhattan federal court in 2014. But prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office appealed Gardephe’s decision, arguing that Valle’s fantasies could have led to real violence.
And the question over the nature of Valle’s dark fantasies – and if they were just that or something more – is now being put to three judges in federal appeals court. The judges heard argument from both sides Tuesday.
Gardephe overturned Valle’s guilty verdict, he wrote, because “the evidentiary record is such that it is more likely than not the case that all of Valle’s Internet communications about kidnapping are fantasy role-play.”
But the panel appeared divided over the question, according to news reports.
One of the judges in the case, Chester Straub, challenged Valle’s lawyers during Tuesday’s session, according to reports. Straub argued that just because Valle’s chats were fantasy, it did not mean that they could not become real.
And this argument is closely aligned to the prosecution’s case in the original trial. The prosecution built its case on the evidence that Valle visited one of his potential targets at her Maryland workplace. He also researched buying chloroform, according to reports.
But one of the other judges, Barrington Parker, likened the kidnapping conspiracy to a drug plot with cocaine bought from the moon by a leprechaun, according to Newsday.
Whether or not Valle’s talk of kidnapping and killing are the stuff of fantasy or something more serious is something that will be weighed in the coming weeks by the panel.
Valle faces life in prison if his conviction of conspiracy to murder is reinstated.
His case is also the subject of a new HBO Documentary called “Thought Crimes,” which was filmed while Valle was under house arrest after the judge overturned his guilty sentence.
Valle was arrested after his wife stumbled upon a list of about 100 “victims” that he had compiled. His wife’s name was included on that list. On his online correspondences with other people, he discussed how he would kill and cook the victims from his list, according to Newsday.
Valle was also convicted and did time for misusing a police database to research the women on his list.
The 31-year-old was an officer for the NYPD, but he was kicked off the force after his wife told others about his dark secrets.
