'Cannibal cop' should stay off Internet, prosecutors say

Manhattan federal prosecutors want so-called "cannibal cop" Gilberto Valle to stay away from the Internet, even though a judge cleared him of plotting to kidnap women and concluded he was just fantasizing in cyberspace.

Valle, 30, a former NYPD cop, was convicted by a jury last year of a kidnap conspiracy based on kinky conversations with men he met on the Web, but Manhattan U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe reversed the conviction based on lack of evidence that he was serious. The government is appealing.

With Valle due to be sentenced Tuesday on a separate charge of misusing a police database to check out women, prosecutors this week asked the judge to make him to stay off the Internet and stay away from the women prosecutors still believe he targeted, including his wife.

Valle was in jail for 21 months, longer than the 12-month maximum for accessing the database. His lawyers have asked Gardephe to impose no restrictions other than requiring mental health treatment. They say Valle hopes to go to law school.