Supreme Court and Court

¶ … Cannibal Cop" -- When does evil thought become a crime?

Gilbert Valle III was a 28-year-old former New York City police officer who was arrested after his wife reveled to authorities that he was obsessed with the idea of kidnapping women, torturing them, raping them then eating their flesh.

His wife had come upon his computer record of his visits to chat rooms (including "Dark Fetish Net") that deal in unspeakably evil activities. She saw that he had fantasized kidnapping women -- perhaps as many as 100 -- tying them up, raping them, torturing them, then butchering them and cooking them in the oven, after which he saw himself eating them.

He had what is called a "bondage fetish," among other fetishes, but all his planning, which consisted of Google searches for how to make chloroform, how to kidnap women and more, never actually materialized into real life actions. In other words, yes, he was originally convicted of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and he was convicted of illegally accessing the federal National Crime Information Center database. In that database he was apparently searching for potential female targets that he could kidnap and eventually eat.

This was clearly among the more bizarre crimes in New York City. Or was it really a crime? Valle was found guilty with conspiracy to commit kidnapping in 2013 in Manhattan Federal Court (the Thurgood Marshall Court House). A jury of six women and six men found him guilty. He served 21 months in prison. But a Federal District Court judge overturned his conviction; there was insufficient evidence that he really planned to commit a kidnapping crime.

Exclusive Interview with Valle

Me: What brought you to the point where you were actually planning to kill your own wife, slice her throat, tie her up, torture her and then cook her and eat her?

Valle: There are a lot of myths about what was actually going on.

Me: Well, what was actually going on?

Valle: Once you have that initial picture in your head, the initial concept of what you might like to do, you start to seek out pieces of information that go with those pictures in your head . . .

Me: An FBI forensics specialist testified in the trial that among the twisted searches you launched on your computer, you tried to locate "recipes for human flesh." You were seriously planning these ugly, unthinkable crimes, right? By the way, did you find any recipes?

Valle: Honestly I can't recall if I did or not.

Me: But here you are in a Federal Court having to listen to evidence that surely the jurors are shocked by. You were seriously planning to kidnap and barbecue the women who testified in court, right? Even if you, in your heart of hearts, didn't really plan to do that, it looks awful.

Valle: I want everyone to have all the facts before they make up their minds. I was born in Queens, New York. My parents separated when I was young. I graduated from the University of Maryland in 2006 with a degree in psychology. I never harmed anyone. Never.

Interview with Lead Defense Attorney for Valle, Julie Gatto

Gatto: The defense team has always maintained that his time in those chat rooms was just a trip into fantasy land, that he may have had some hideous thoughts and made contacts with individuals that were psychologically unfit, but he never carried out any of those plans.

Me: We're talking about atrocities against women, including his wife. She testified that she was "Supposed to be tied by my feet, my throat slit, and they were going to watch the blood rush from my body." As a woman, did you have a tough time defending a person who could conjure up such hideously cruel strategies against women -- including eating them?

Gatto: I was able filter those unpleasant aspects of the case out, and focus on my job, which was to defend a man who has committed no crimes -- other than his accessing of the federal database.

Me: What did you think of the work by the prosecutors Randall Jackson and Hadassa Waxman?

Gatto: They presented testimony that attempted to show my client intended to carry through with his fantasies. I did my best to rebuff those assertions. He was just in a dark fantasy place but he had no intention to carry through with those violent, unspeakably brutal acts.

Me: On February 26, 2013, the prosecution brought three women in to testify, who were, allegedly, Valle's "intended targets." Did they have an important role in convincing the jury?

Gatto: Their testimony was dramatic at the time but I don't think they had a huge impact. On March 8, 2013, the jury asked Judge Gardephe (through jury notes) what they should do if they find no overt act was ever committed. And it bolstered our case when the judge told the jury that for the kidnapping conspiracy charge, they had to find an "overt act" was committed.

Me: Did you receive any public support for your defense of Gatto?

Gatto: Yes, the nuns at Maryknoll Monastery were praying for us, and they sent us two Mass cards. One read, "Blessed be the Lord day by day. God, our salvation who carries us." I understand one of the jurors requested the nuns to pray for Valle. It showed that there is support for us from places that may surprise people.

Comparison of Courts -- State, Federal, and the U.S. Supreme Court

State and local courts are always established by the states, and local courts are established by cities, counties, and other municipalities. State courts have "broad jurisdiction" over the kinds of cases that they are involved in (Findlaw.com). Those cases tried in local and county courts include family disputes, robberies, traffic violations, broken contracts, among other issues.

State courts are always established by the highest court in the state, the Supreme Court. There are states with intermediate courts (Court of Appeals), and these are sometimes called Circuit or District Courts (uscourts.gov). If a party is not happy with a decision that a trial court has laid down, they often take those cases to the Court of Appeals. Some states have courts that specifically handle things like wills, estates, juvenile and family issues -- they are called probate courts in most cases. Judges for state courts are: elected, appointed for a certain number of years, appointed for life, or a combination of these time frames (uscourts.gov).