What to Know
- The former NYPD officer accused of wanting to hire a hitman to kill her estranged husband and a child pleaded not guilty Friday
- Valerie Cincinelli allegedly asked her now ex-boyfriend to pay a hitman who would kill her estranged husband and boyfriend’s own daughter
- Following Friday’s hearing, her attorney said she would be exonerated
The former NYPD officer accused of wanting to hire a hitman to kill her estranged husband and a child pleaded not guilty Friday.
Valerie Cincinelli allegedly asked 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.
Following Friday’s hearing, her attorney said she would be exonerated.
“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.
Kousouros wants Cincinelli out on bail, but for now she will stay behind bars until the next court hearing.
Cincinelli was arrested earlier this month 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.
Local
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 though, 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.
