Papers: Federal judge in murder-for-hire plot case recommends ex-NYPD cop serves time closer to home

A federal judge has again recommended Valerie Cincinelli, the former NYPD officer convicted of obstructing a grand jury investigation into a plan to hire a hit man to kill her estranged husband, serve her time in a Connecticut prison.

Cincinelli wrote a letter to the judge bemoaning her planned transfer to Kentucky, according to court documents.

Cincinelli, who was sentenced last year to 48 months in prison after pleading guilty to a single charge of obstruction of justice, is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ online inmate locator.

"My reason for writing you is to beg you to please ask the BOP to reconsider my designation to Danbury CT," Cincinelli wrote in a handwritten letter to U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert on Jan. 4.

"I may be stuck here several months awaiting a transfer to Kentucky and I would lose out on my opportunity for work release and programs if I stay here in Brooklyn."

Cincinelli told the judge that she had been designated to a federal prison in Lexington, Kentucky, and said "severe weather" has "over taken that state," referring to the Dec. 10 tornado that killed 58 people and caused catastrophic damage to several towns in the western part of the state.

"Their government recently declared a state of emergency due to the death toll from the tornados and the damaged infrastructure," Cincinelli wrote.

In response to Cincinelli’s letter, Seybert last Thursday recommended to the Bureau of Prisons that Cincinelli be housed at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury.

Seybert had already asked the BOP to send Cincinelli to Danbury after her sentencing.

BOP spokeswoman Kristie Breshears said by email that prison designation information is not releasable until after an inmate arrives at the facility.

Breshears added that the bureau "routinely receives judicial recommendations and weighs a number of factors regarding designation to a facility." She said the bureau ultimately determines where a prisoner serves the sentence.

Cincinelli’s Manhattan-based attorney James Kousouros said by phone Monday that his client’s transfer from MDC to the Kentucky prison has been delayed because of the recent COVID-19 surge and the tornado damage. He added that Cincinelli recently tested positive for coronavirus.

"The conditions at the MDC certainly with regard to the covid pandemic are absolutely untenable with regard to female inmates," said Kousouros. "They are not segregated as they are in a dormitory environment and the majority of women have contracted COVID during the latest surge, including Ms. Cincinelli."

Prosecutors have said Cincinelli, a 12-year veteran of the NYPD from Oceanside, plotted to have her estranged husband, Isaiah Carvalho, killed because she didn’t want to share her pension with him. The couple was also going through a divorce and custody battle over their son. Prosecutors have also said she planned to have the 13-year-old daughter of her ex-boyfriend killed because she felt he was spending too much money on the girl.

Prosecutors dropped two murder-for-hire counts against Cincinelli as part of a plea deal.

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com@NicoleFuller

Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.