Valerie Cincinelli, a former New York police officer, got four years in prison for seeking to enlist her boyfriend in a murder-for-hire scheme.
A former New York City police officer accused of orchestrating a botched murder-for-hire plot — in which she asked her boyfriend to hire a hit man to kill her estranged husband and his teenage daughter — was sentenced on Friday to four years in prison.
The former officer, Valerie Cincinelli, 37, pleaded guilty in April to obstruction of justice, one of three counts she faced in connection with the scheme. Her lawyers had asked a federal judge to sentence her to time served — she has been in custody since her May 2019 arrest. Federal prosecutors had sought a five-year term.
Ms. Cincinelli was suspended without pay after her arrest and resigned from the Police Department in March, the police said.
In a sentencing memorandum, federal prosecutors pointed to the violent and specific detail in Ms. Cincinelli’s communications with her boyfriend whom she thought was conspiring with her, but was in fact recording their conversations for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Ms. Cincinelli’s lawyer, James Kousouros, had argued that she did not believe the murder-for-hire plot would be carried out. He wrote in his sentencing memorandum that her boyfriend, John DiRubba, had manipulated her, left her in a “broken and compromised state” and reported her to the authorities out of a desire for revenge.
After the sentencing in federal court in Central Islip, Long Island, on Friday, Mr. Kousouros said he was pleased with the sentence, which he felt reflected the judge’s understanding of his client’s troubled relationship with Mr. DiRubba. Ms. Cincinelli, he added, will be eligible under sentencing rules for release to home confinement in about five months.
“This was a very, very long and emotional journey for everybody,” Mr. Kousouros said.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment.
