Fresh details have emerged in the case of a New York City Police Department officer who is accused of seeking a contract murder on her estranged husband.
Officer Valerie Cincinelli, 34, was arrested on Friday in an FBI sting after federal agents staged an elaborate ruse to convince her that the alleged murder-for-hire had been carried out.
The twisted saga dates back to February, when prosecutors say that mother-of-two Cincinelli approached her new boyfriend, urging him to find a hitman who could off her estranged husband, Isaiah Carvalho Jr.
But instead of going forward with the plot, the boyfriend rushed to the FBI with the information and became a secret informant, according to charging documents reported by the New York Post.
Valerie Cincinelli (pictured left in 2017 with ex-husband Isiah Carvalho and her daughter), 34, is accused of asking her current boyfriend to hire an assassin to kill her ex-husband. She received a ‘Cop of the month’ award in July 2017 (shown above)
Video courtesy PIX 11
On February 18, prosecutors say that Cincinelli moved forward with the plot by withdrawing $7,000 from a TD Bank branch, giving the money to the boyfriend to buy five ounces of gold coins to be used to pay the purported hitman.
Cincinelli, who has her own children with Carvalho, also wanted the supposed hitman to kill her new boyfriend’s own teen daughter because she was in the way of their relationship, the court documents say.
The cop allegedly told her boyfriend tell the hitman to ‘run her the f**k over’ to make the girl’s death appear to be a hit-and-run.
The boyfriend strung Cincinelli along as the FBI gathered information, telling her that he was in contact with a hitman and the plot was moving forward.
On Monday, the boyfriend told Cincinelli that the supposed hitman was stalking Carvalho at his workplace on Long Island, but the NYPD cop protested that the area was too upscale.
Instead, Cincinelli said he should be killed in ‘the hood’ or ‘the ghetto’ so ‘it would not look suspicious,’ court papers say.
Worried that two deaths close together would raise suspicion, Cincinelli advised her boyfriend ‘to have the hitman kill [the teen] over the weekend and then wait a week or a month to kill’ her husband, the documents said.
Ex-husband Isiah Carvalho Jr (above) posed as dead in a photo that federal agents sent to Cincinelli’s boyfriend, which he used to convince her the hit had been carried out
The investigation came to a head on Friday morning, when a Suffolk County detective who was working with the feds came to Cincinelli’s home and told her – falsely – that her husband had been found dead.
Cincinelli sobbed during the notification – but hidden devices recorded her response after the detective left her home.
She quickly began discussing her ‘alibi’ with the boyfriend, according to the court papers.
The boyfriend also showed her text messages between himself and an undercover federal agent posing as the hitman, one of which included a staged photo of Carvalho appearing dead in his car, court papers say.
Soon after, a task force of FBI agents and NYPD Internal Affairs officers swooped in and arrested Cincinelli.
Records show Carvalho filed for divorce against Cincinelli last year and a court date had been set for June.
Prosecutors did not offer a motive for Cincinelli wanted him dead.
According to the NBC4, Cincinelli joined the police department in 2007 and worked out of the Queens 106th Precinct, in Ozone Park.
However, she was stripped of her badge and gun and placed on modified assignment in 2017 following a number of domestic incidents, an official said.
Cincinelli joined the New York police department in 2007 and worked out of the Queens 106th Precinct (above) in Ozone Park
Cinicinelli’s father, however, has jumped to his daughter’s defense insisting the allegations against her are ‘bulls***’.
‘They were married, they have a kid together and then they got divorced. There is no way on the planet my daughter would have someone try to murder him. That’s nonsense!’ he told the Post on Friday.
He also added that his daughter had been ‘going out with some wacko who made an allegation against her before that she tried to kill him.’
Refusing to identify the man, he said that he was ‘sure’ the unnamed partner was behind the allegation.
Meanwhile, Carvalho Jr. is said to be left ‘shaken-up’ by the ordeal but doing well ‘with all things considered’.
The Bronx-based mechanic declined to speculate whether he believed the allegations against his ex-wife were true or not.
Before her demotion, Cincinelli had been an award-winning officer and was even crowned ‘Cop of the month’ by the Jamaica Rotary in June 2017.
The Oceanside, Long Island resident had recently been working at the Viper Unit, monitoring cameras in public housing prior to her arrest.
A graduate of Longwood University, Cincinelli returned to the school in 2016 to be interviewed about her work in the NYPD’s domestic violence unit.
‘We want kids to like us. That’s the next generation; they’ll be adults in 10 years. I love kids; they’re my soft spot. I feel like I’m making a difference by helping children and their families,’ she told the school’s alumni magazine.
‘Unfortunately, when I say hello to kids out walking with their parents, the parent sometimes says, ‘Don’t talk to them.’ Some parents teach their kids to hate the police.’
Cincinelli is charged with use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire, which carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.
She will appear before a judge on Monday. She was immediately suspended without pay after her arrest.