Co-Defendant In 'Cannibal Cop' Case Wants Freedom
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A co-defendant of the New York City police officer dubbed the "cannibal cop'' wants to be freed from jail too.
One of the alleged co-conspirators of former officer Gilberto Valle has filed papers asking that his conviction be overturned, the Daily News reported.
A Manhattan federal judge overturned Valle's conspiracy conviction in July, saying his plans to kidnap, kill and eat women were all fantasy.
Twenty-three-year-old Michael Van Hise's attorney argues that his client's jury conviction should be tossed out on the same grounds that Judge Paul Gardephe used to free Valle.
Attorney Alice Fontier said her client and Valle are "similarly situated" and it would be "inconsistent" to let Van Hise's conviction stand while Valle walks free, WCBS 880's Irene Cornell reported.
Van Hise, a mechanic from Trenton, N.J., was initially charged with conspiring with Valle, but those charges were dropped. He was convicted of conspiring with two other men he had met online to kidnap, rape, torture and murder women.
Emails Van Hise sent Valle were some of the most shocking; he offered up children, including his own 3-year-old stepdaughter and two young nieces, as sex slaves Cornell reported.
Unlike Valle, whose terrified wife turned him in to the FBI, Van Hise had a supportive spouse, Cornell reported.
"You have to accept your partner's flaws in a marriage,"Bonice Van Hise said, adding that she knew about her husband's obsession with dark fetish websites and described him as "harmless."
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