A federal appeals court has denied bail for an NYPD officer charged with conspiring to rape, kill and eat women.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied bail for Gilberto Valle on Tuesday.
Attorney Edward Zas argued for bail for Valle. He said the officer merely engaged in the same sexual fantasies as 40,000 other people who go on Internet sites that cater to fetishes.
Judge Chester Straub disputed the lawyer's claim. He said there appeared to be evidence Valle took steps to carry out some of the plots. A prosecutor agreed.
Valle, 28, of Queens, was charged in October with two counts of attempted kidnapping. According to the criminal complaint, Valle had files on his computer that referred to at least 100 women, including photographs, addresses and physical descriptions.
In online transcripts Valle at one point tells a co-conspirator that his oven is "big enough to fit one of these girls if I folded their legs."
"I was thinking of tying her body onto some kind of apparatus ... cook her over a low heat, keep her alive as long as possible," he is accused of saying in the July conversation.
A co-defendant from New Jersey was denied bail last week.
Valle's trial is scheduled to start next week. However, defense lawyers say they may need more time to prepare their case.
