Judge Acquits, NYPD ‘Cannibal Cop’ Goes Free (VIDEO)

Let’s face it, everyone feels safer with a “cannibal cop” on the loose, don’t they?

Well, we can all be thankful that Judge Paul G. Gardephe of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the Southern District of New York just overturned Gilberto Valle’s conviction this past Monday. The ex-NYPD officer serving up to life behind bars for a 2012 conviction of plotting to abduct, rape, kill and cannibalize women (women he knows) may have been released as early as Tuesday.

Back in 2012, RT reported that an FBI investigation into Valle turned up disturbing documents, statements and one file charmingly titled, “Abducting and Cooking Kimberly: A Blueprint.” Inside the file were a handful of details: a birth date, bra size and a list of abduction supplies. Additionally, the FBI alleged that Valle had communicated with a third party about abducting a woman.

According to court papers, one document hinted clearly at the severity of Valle’s fantasies.

“I was thinking of tying her body onto some kind of apparatus … cook her over low heat, keep her alive as long as possible.”

That’s the kind of cop you want to greet you on a dark country road, isn’t it?

Valle also wrote:

“I will really get off on knocking her out, tying up her hands and bare feet and gagging her. Then she will be stuffed into a large piece of luggage and wheeled out to my van.”

And why, for the Son of Sam, would the Honorable Judge Gardephe let this horny, hungry fella free?

Flimsy evidence. The entire grounds of the case, apparently, were built upon Valle’s sexual fantasies. Judge Gardephe contested that no crimes had ever been committed because it was simply part of Valle’s sexual fetish.

True, Gilberto Valle has yet to eat anyone. He just likes to get off imagining kidnapping, brutally raping, killing and eating the women around him, including his wife. That’s a relief.

According to the New York Post, Judge Gardephe wrote:

“The evidentiary record is such that it is more than likely than not the case that all of Valle’s Internet communications about kidnapping are fantasy role-play.”

Judge Gardephe also wrote:

“No one was ever kidnapped, no attempted kidnapping ever took place, and no real-world, non-Internet-based steps were ever taken to kidnap anyone.

“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 on inquiry about allegedly agreed-upon and scheduled kidnappings is that Valle and the others engaged in these chats understood that no kidnapping would actually take place.”

Valle’s attorney Julia Gatto told the Associated Press that she was, of course, pleased.

“The judge’s well-reasoned decision validates what we have said since the beginning: There was no crime. Gil Valle is innocent of any conspiracy. Gil is guilty of nothing more than having unconventional thoughts.

“Gil Valle has been in jail for 18 long months, 7 months in solitary confinement, for a crime he absolutely didn’t commit. We’re relieved he will be free and incredibly grateful to Judge Gardephe for upholding the awesome and fundamental legal principles at stake here, including our core freedom to be able to think what we want free of government intrusion.”

Gardephe did state, however, despite acquitting Valle, that he found the evidence against him “highly disturbing” and “misogynistic.”

According to the Post, Judge Gardephe wrote:

“Once the lies and the fantastical elements are stripped away, what is left are deeply disturbed misogynistic chats and emails written by an individual obsessed with imagining women he knows suffering horrific sex-related pain, terror and degradation.

“Despite the highly disturbing nature of Valle’s deviant and depraved sexual interests, his chats and emails about these interests are not sufficient — standing alone — to make out the elements of conspiracy to commit kidnapping.”

It’s no wonder every once in a while someone has to shoot Warhol, isn’t it? This country breeds its Valerie Solanas-es, its Aileen Wuornos-es. There is a reason for The Legend Of Billie Jean, Thelma & Louise finding their way into the Hollywood mainstream. America engineers the language that bleeds forth our SCUM Manifestoes.

 
Judge Gardephe did let one charge stick to Valle, though, and that charge just upgrades Valle’s creepy factor as far as the public should be concerned.

Valle used the NYPD’s federal database to gather information and stalk his, as of yet, fantasy victims. But, because that charge carries only up to a single year’s prison sentence, Valle could already be walking the streets for having already served 18 months in prison. No doubt he is hot and ready after a year and a half of nothing much to do but cook up fantasies for when he is released. How many scenarios could he play out in his mind over the extremely limited number of women he’d had vague, peripheral contact with throughout his time in prison? Most likely his prime fantasy throughout much of that time was, ironically, his own lawyer Julia Gatto.

At the time of Valle’s conviction, prosecutors had insisted that Valle’s use of the NYPD database illustrated the officer’s personal life was beginning to shift from fantasy to reality. They claimed he’d researched dubious materials online, as well, such as chloroform, which can be used to render someone unconscious. Defense attorneys scoffed it all off as mere fantasy.

Oh? Perhaps Ms. Gatto would love a personal tour of the fantasy dungeon sometime?

During Valle’s appeal, lawyers believed the jury unable to distinguish between Valle’s fantasies and any steps he may have taken to act on them. Judge Gardephe agreed and acquitted Valle then and there.

That’s all well and fine. You certainly can’t imprison someone for mere thoughts — that’s not okay. But perhaps, at the very least, you know, now that this is all wide out there in the open for the public to see and know, maybe just perhaps Gilberto Valle shouldn’t be a cop anymore? You think? Perhaps his mindset isn’t the best for public service where women’s safety can often be an issue? Maybe throw in a few counseling sessions and sensitivity training, too.

Everyone knows the world doesn’t work that way, though. No doubt Valle will be back in blue before we know it if he chooses, and with back pay, right? That’s how it works.

Perhaps, then, folks should start fantasizing more about abducting, raping, killing and eating judges or cops just to test the limits of the freedoms of fantasy? Or maybe just narrow that down to Judge Paul G. Gardephe or one officer Gilberto Valle?

Mmmm …. That sounds good.

Yeah …. Just like that.

Tell us what you think at our Liberal America Facebook page!

H/T RT.

Dylan Hock is a writer, professor, videographer and social activist. He earned an MFA in Writing from Naropa University in 2003 and has been an Occupier since Oct., 2011, both nationally and locally in Michigan. He is published in a number of little magazines and has an essay on the muzzling of Ezra Pound included in the anthology Star Power: The Impact Of Branded Celebrity due out July of 2014 by Praeger. He is also a contributing writer for Take Ten, Addicting Info and Green Action News. Follow him on Google+! Hire him for freelance writing and editing projects through Elance.