07-01-2014, 08:47 AM
CONVICTION OVERTURNED
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge has overturned the conviction of a former New York City police officer accused of plotting to kidnap, kill and eat young women.
In his 118-page opinion, first reported by The New York Times, Judge Gardephe said: "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."
"The judge's well-reasoned decision validates what we have said since the beginning: There was no crime," she said. "Gil Valle is innocent of any conspiracy. Gil is guilty of nothing more than having unconventional thoughts."
Gardephe upheld Valle's conviction on a charge of illegally gaining access to the law enforcement database, which carried a maximum sentence of one year. Valle was fired after his conviction.
In one of the numerous online conversations shown to the jury during the trial, Valle told a man he met in a fetish chat room, "I want her to experience being cooked alive. She'll be trussed up like a turkey. ... She'll be terrified, screaming and crying."
In another exchange, Valle suggested a woman he knew would be easy prey because she lived alone. The men discussed cooking her, basted in olive oil, over an open fire and using her severed head as a centerpiece for a sit-down meal.
Valle, who could have faced life in prison, was acquitted of kidnapping conspiracy charges, the most serious count he faced. He was convicted in March 2013 and had not yet been sentenced.
A jury had concluded he wasn't just fantasizing when he conversed online with others he had never met about killing and cooking his wife and others in a cannibalism plot.
Full story: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/01...46955.html
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Had the asshole not used his position as a police officer to illegally obtain women's addresses and discussed real women in his kidnap/torture/kill/eat fantasies, I could understand the judge overturning the conviction (on the basis that it was an overreach by the thought police -- with no crime having been committed).
But, the fact that some of Valle's fantasy victims were real people to whom he'd secretly gained access leads me to believe that the jury got it right -- Valle was stopped before he had a chance to turn his fantasies into realities.
Oh well, looks like he'll be freed soon.
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge has overturned the conviction of a former New York City police officer accused of plotting to kidnap, kill and eat young women.
In his 118-page opinion, first reported by The New York Times, Judge Gardephe said: "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."
"The judge's well-reasoned decision validates what we have said since the beginning: There was no crime," she said. "Gil Valle is innocent of any conspiracy. Gil is guilty of nothing more than having unconventional thoughts."
Gardephe upheld Valle's conviction on a charge of illegally gaining access to the law enforcement database, which carried a maximum sentence of one year. Valle was fired after his conviction.
In one of the numerous online conversations shown to the jury during the trial, Valle told a man he met in a fetish chat room, "I want her to experience being cooked alive. She'll be trussed up like a turkey. ... She'll be terrified, screaming and crying."
In another exchange, Valle suggested a woman he knew would be easy prey because she lived alone. The men discussed cooking her, basted in olive oil, over an open fire and using her severed head as a centerpiece for a sit-down meal.
Valle, who could have faced life in prison, was acquitted of kidnapping conspiracy charges, the most serious count he faced. He was convicted in March 2013 and had not yet been sentenced.
A jury had concluded he wasn't just fantasizing when he conversed online with others he had never met about killing and cooking his wife and others in a cannibalism plot.
Full story: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/01...46955.html
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Had the asshole not used his position as a police officer to illegally obtain women's addresses and discussed real women in his kidnap/torture/kill/eat fantasies, I could understand the judge overturning the conviction (on the basis that it was an overreach by the thought police -- with no crime having been committed).
But, the fact that some of Valle's fantasy victims were real people to whom he'd secretly gained access leads me to believe that the jury got it right -- Valle was stopped before he had a chance to turn his fantasies into realities.
Oh well, looks like he'll be freed soon.