Cops Defend Cannibal Cop: "We Still Don't Know What He Did Wrong"

A jury of his peers decided yesterday that former NYPD officer Gilberto Valle was guilty of conspiring to kidnap, torture, kill and eat women he knew (including his wife), as well as using NYPD computers to look up information about his targets. He could be sentenced to life in prison for the top charge, but his fellow officers at the 26th Precinct in Morningside Heights—where Valle worked until his arrest—really don't see what the big deal is.

The Post reports that Valle's fellow officers were "stunned" by the guilty verdict. "We still don’t know what he did wrong," one cop tells the tabloid. "He didn’t have any duct tape,” one cop said. “It was some kind of fantasy in his mind. We didn’t think he would actually do it or carry it out.” And over on the cop message board NYPD Rant, one wag writes, "Ok, he made plans to commit crimes---never doing one thing wrong--He is one sick FVCK--guys BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING---Teddy Kennedy KILLED A GIRL DID NO TIME."

The jury, however, didn't let Chappaquiddick get in the way of their four day decision-making process. The foreman tells the Daily News, "It was gradual. There was no, ‘Ah, that’s it.' We let everyone speak, any questions, any doubts, and we pursued them all, maintained order [and] kept things organized." Another tells the tabloid, "The majority of what we were looking at we felt was fantasy. I think like an addict needs a larger and larger dose, he was needing things that were more and more real and he was progressing."

Last September, the News reports, Valle closed his account on the Darkfetishnet.com website, telling his cannibal chat buddy that would make it harder for him “to get caught.” It was then he started focusing on the high school student he’d been salivating over, one Kirsten Ponticelli, whom he'd go watch play softball. And in a file called "Abduction and Cooking of Kimberly: A Blueprint," Valle wrote about an old High School friend, writing that he was "longing for the day I cram a chloroform-soaked rag in her face."

When the verdict was read, Valle wept and hugged his lawyer before being taken away in handcuffs. His attorney plans to appeal, but regardless Valle will be sentenced on June 19th, which happens to be his first wedding anniversary.