New York

Ex-NYPD Cop Faces Judge for First Time in Alleged Murder-for-Hire Case, as Victim's Family Speaks Out

The judge wants to read the complete transcripts of the recordings and review video before setting bail

What to Know

  • The ex-cop accused of wanting to hire a hitman to kill her estranged husband will remain behind bars as a judge waits to rule on bail
  • The judge wants to read the complete transcripts of the recordings and review video before setting bail
  • Valerie Cincinelli pleaded not guilty back in May in the murder-for-hire plot to kill her ex-husband and a child

The former NYPD officer accused of wanting to hire a hitman to kill her estranged husband and a child faced a judge for the first time Monday.

Valerie Cincinelli and her lawyer were hoping the disgraced ex-cop would be released on bail, but the judge put the applicatioon on hold. U.S. District Judge Sandra Feuerstein said she wants to read the complete transcripts of the recordings and review video before setting bail. She also ordered a medical and psychiatric exam for Cincinelli.

The parents of the man she allegedly wanted killed also spoke out for the first time Monday. Isaiah Carvalho's mother, stepfather and sister were all present in the courtroom during the hearing.

"It's horrific, it's horrible, I don't see how anyone could do this to somebody," Mary Ann Roach said outside the courthouse after the hearing.

"I could be planning a funeral instead," she said choking back tears.

Cincinelli pleaded not guilty back in May. Her attorney told the judge on Monday the boyfriend used the money she gave him to buy gold coins, not hire a hitman.

"There was no plan, there was no hitman, there was no payment to anybody," said James Kousouros.

Cincinelli is accused of asking her now ex-boyfriend to pay a hitman who would kill her estranged husband and the boyfriend’s own daughter.

Cincinelli, 34, is charged with two counts of murder for hire and one count of obstruction of justice after she allegedly altered, destroyed, mutilated and concealed records, documents and object on two iPhones, according to indictment documents.

“The essential accuser in this case is an individual whose credibility will be very strenuously and very credibly, very credibly attacked,” defense attorney James Kousouros said. He also confirmed Friday that Cincinelli has been fired from the police department.

The former NYPD cop was arrested in May by the FBI following a sting operation. NYPD Internal Affairs assisted in her arrest.

A source familiar with the investigation previously told NBC 4 New York the child was her current boyfriend's 14-year-old daughter.

The officer's father spoke out following Cincinelli’s arrest, defending his daughter saying he doesn't believe she did it.

"I haven't seen anything, and until I do I really shouldn't be saying anything," Lou Cincinelli said at his Long Island home. "But I guarantee you my daughter is innocent of this."

However, in an interview Cincinelli's estranged husband said he found out about the alleged plot from federal authorities who told him to fake his own death.

The officer previously worked out of the 106th Precinct in Queens, before being placed on modified duty in 2017 for an unrelated domestic incident, the police official said.

Before that, she was an award-winning officer, including a "cop of the month" award from the Jamaica Rotary in June 2017.

Cincinelli, who joined the NYPD in 2007, was most recently in a unit known as VIPER that monitored security cameras.

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