Cop convicted in cannibalism plot

NEW YORK (AP) — Defense lawyers say all Internet users should worry that their online words can end up in federal court after a jury concluded that a New York police officer’s plans to kidnap, kill and eat young women he knew were more than Internet chatter.

At the end of one of the most unusual federal trials ever, a jury agreed Tuesday with the government that 28-year-old Gilberto Valle 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.

“Yes, they should be cautioned,” Valle defense lawyer Robert Baum said outside court of people everywhere. “It sets a dangerous precedent.”

The larger principle at stake in the trial was that “people can be prosecuted for their thoughts,” Baum said, pausing before adding: “And convicted, which is even sadder to think about.”

Baum had just exited federal court in Manhattan, where Valle and others at the defense table dropped their heads as the guilty verdicts were announced by a jury that had deliberated for portions of four days.

Valle defense attorney Julia Gatto declined to talk about the sentencing scheduled for June 19, saying the defense team was focused only on trying to reverse the conviction on charges of kidnapping conspiracy and illegally accessing a national crime database. She said she will appeal within a month to U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe to throw out the jury verdict or to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Although Valle could face up to life in prison, he is likely to get a much lower sentence.

Gatto, who said she cried with Valle after the verdict was announced, called it a “dangerous prosecution when we start opening our minds and prosecuting what’s in our brains and not what’s in the real world.”

The jury, though, rejected the same “thought prosecution” argument she made throughout the trial.

Prosecutors said Valle plotted in lusty, lip-smacking detail to abduct, torture and cannibalize six women he knew, including his wife. While none of the women were ever harmed — and only his wife discovered his schemes — prosecutors said he took concrete steps to carry out his plot.

During the trial, Valle’s wife tearfully testified that she fled the couple’s home with her baby and contacted the FBI after putting Internet tracking software on his computer and discovering what he was up to.

Members of the jury recoiled upon seeing what appeared to be mostly staged Internet images from a sexual fetish site Valle visited.