Officer in NYPD "cannibal" case indicted

Gilberto Valle, the so-called NYPD cannibal cop accused of plotting to abduct and eat women, was indicted Friday on charges of conspiracy and unlawfully accessing a National Criminal Information System computer.

Valle, 28, of Forest Hills, faces up to life in prison if convicted. He is scheduled to enter a plea on Monday in federal court in Manhattan, officials said. His court-appointed lawyer did not return a call for comment.

Valle, a 6-year NYPD veteran, has been detained since his arrest last month on charges that he kept files on women on his computer, discussed with one unnamed co-conspirator abducting a woman for $5,000, and mused about putting other women in his oven and cooking them.

Authorities said the case started when Valle's estranged wife found pornography and strange files on his computer, and tipped the FBI. Yesterday's indictment added no new twists to the story.

It said that Valle, who's charged with conspiracy to kidnap, accessed the police criminal database, "communicated with a co-conspirator not named as a defendant herein, about kidnapping, cooking and eating body parts of a woman," and later traveled to Maryland to meet with that intended victim.