Alleged 'Cannibal Cop' Co-Conspirator Richard Meltz Gets 10 Years In Prison
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) - The former police chief at a Massachusetts Veterans Administration medical center has been sentenced to 10 years in prison in a kidnap-murder case that resulted from the prosecution of a cannibalism case against a New York City police officer.
Richard Meltz was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan. U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe said the 66-year-old ex-police chief at a Massachusetts Veterans Administration medical center went far beyond Internet fantasy chats when he conversed with two others who were recently convicted at trial in the case.
Ex-Police Chief Richard Meltz Gets 10 Years In Kidnap-Kill Case
As WCBS 880's Irene Cornell reported, Meltz faced a maximum of 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to two charges of conspiracy. He admitted assisting in the planned kidnapping of adult relatives of a New Jersey man and of a woman who was actually an undercover FBI agent.
The conspiracy went far beyond the internet, the judge said; there were meetings, telephone calls and the purchase of a Taser gun to be used in the kidnappings.
Sources told 1010 WINS this case is connected to the so-called "cannibal cop" case of former NYPD officer Gilberto Valle, who was found guilty in a plot to kidnap, kill and eat women.
A Valle co-defendant, Michael Van Hise, allegedly e-mailed both Asch and Meltz about kidnapping and killing his wife.
Asch and Meltz are charged with conspiring from at least the spring of 2011 until Monday to carry out the plot, according to the criminal complaint.
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