Gilberto Valle, a.k.a. the alleged Cannibal Cop, sure talked a lot about kidnapping, raping, cooking, and eating women with his also-arrested online friend, but he may not have really meant it. The New York Times reports today that Dr. Park Dietz, a psychiatrist who has consulted on serial killers like Ted Kaczynski and Jeffrey Dahmer and usually testifies on behalf of law enforcement, will come to Valle’s defense at his trial in two weeks. The defendant may be gross, but he’s not insane, says Dietz.
“Dr. Dietz’s objective evaluation completely supports Mr. Valle’s innocence,” claims a public defender for the accused NYPD officer. “As has been clear from the start, there is no crime here, only our client’s words. Dr. Dietz will help the jury put those words in context.”
Off-putting as they may be — “cook her over a low heat, keep her alive as long as possible,” for instance — Dietz concluded that Valle is not mentally ill, but suffers from “a deviancy that involved fantasies of sexual sadism,” the Times reports. His “Internet communications and related actions in this case are consistent with the modus operandi of fantasy role play and storytelling engaged in by people” with such a disorder, according to Dietz.
Or as the wife of Valle’s alleged co-conspirator Michael Van Hise put it, “It’s disturbing, but you’ve got to accept your partner’s flaws in a marriage.”
