CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) - A suspended New York City police officer pleaded not guilty Friday to charges she plotted the death of her husband and her boyfriend’s teenage daughter.
Valerie Cincinelli, a 34-year-old veteran of the New York Police Department, appeared in court on federal murder-for-hire charges.
Her estranged husband found out about the alleged plot from authorities who asked him to fake his own death by sitting in his car, hunched over. Posing as a hit man in a sting operation, investigators sent a photo of the staged scene to his wife.
Cincinelli, of Oceanside in Nassau County, is charged with two counts of murder for hire and one count of obstruction of justice.
She’s being held without bail. Her next court appearance is on June 26.
“We’re in the process of investigating the case and we should soon have information that should shed light on the situation,” Cincinelli’s attorney, James Kousouros, told Newsday after Friday’s court session.
According to the federal criminal complaint, Cincinelli asked a confidential FBI source to help her hire a hit man to kill the husband and a minor whose identities weren’t made public - for $7,000. Cincinelli allegedly destroyed two cellphones and the records they contained to block the investigation.
If convicted of murder for hire, Cincinelli could face up to 10 years on each count, and 20 years for obstruction of justice.
The officer, who had been working in Queens’ 106th Precinct, was suspended without pay after her arrest earlier this month at her Long Island home.
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Information from: Newsday, https://www.newsday.com
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