A U.S. Court of Appeals has upheld the dismissal of charges by a lower court against a former NYC police officer who had fantasies of killing, cooking, and eating women.
He has come to be known as the “Cannibal Cop” of New York. The disgraced and former New York City police officer, Gilberto Valle, had his near conviction by a lower court thrown out on Thursday by a United States Appeals Court. In a sensational trial that happened back in March of 2013, Valle was nearly convicted of conspiring to kidnap, torture and murder women.
When Valle was done kidnapping, torturing and murdering the women, it is said that he wanted to cut them up, cook them and eat them.
Valle was also convicted by a lower court of breaking into a confidential New York City police database in an effort to get names and addresses of women that prosecutors believed were to be his first victims, according to Reuters. The judge in the lower court, however, threw out the conspiracy to kidnap charge. When the prosecution appealed, the lower ruling was held up by the appeals court and Valle was allowed to go free.
The 2nd United States Appeals Court of New York upheld the lower court’s decision on appeal by a 2-1 margin and agreed with the conspiracy to kidnap charge being thrown out.
Court of Appeals Justice Barrington Parker wrote the majority opinion which stated, “This is a case about the line between fantasy and criminal intent. Fantasizing about committing a crime, even a crime of violence against a real person whom you know, is not a crime.”
The Court of Appeals also exonerated Valle from the charge of illegally using the New York City police department database. The Court of Appeals ruled that Valle didn’t violate federal law because the law doesn’t prohibit someone from accessing a database they had been given access to under normal circumstances. The intent of using the database is immaterial.
The basis for the original prosecution’s desire to appeal the ruling was one of intent they felt. They had shown how Valle had gone onto the world wide web and found a certain fetish site that catered to his fantasies. The prosecution showed how he discussed with other “enthusiasts” how he wanted to murder, cook, and eat women.
