Accused NYPD cop searched Amy Fisher assault case online, papers say

Suspended NYPD Officer Valerie Cincinelli on June 12. Credit: Howard Schnapp

By Robert E. KesslerRobert.Kessler@newsday.comJune 24, 2019

A veteran New York City police officer, charged in a murder-for-hire plot, did online searches on the Amy Fisher-Joey Buttafuocco assault case and complained to her boyfriend in texts that he was spending too much on luxury goods for his daughter, according to federal prosecutors.

The texts and online searches on the cellphone of Valerie Cincinelli, 35, of Oceanside, were disclosed in court papers filed late Friday in Central Islip federal court by Eastern District federal prosecutors Catherine Mirabile and Lara Treinis Gatz.

The papers are the latest round of filings in the case against Cincinelli, who is accused of trying to have both her estranged husband and the daughter of her boyfriend killed. She is attempting to be released on bail, pending future hearings. She has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors submitted the recent papers in response to the her bail application.

A defense attorney for Cincinelli, a member of the NYPD for 12 years, has contended in court papers that she was set up by her boyfriend, with whom she has had a volatile relationship, and that if she were released on bail she would live at home with her father, a retired NYPD lieutenant.

Prosecutors have argued that Cincinelli should not be released because she is a danger to the community. They say she wanted to have her boyfriend’s daughter killed because he was lavishing too much attention and money on the daughter, buying her designer bags and high-end cosmetics. They said she wanted her estranged husband killed because the couple was going through a difficult divorce and she was concerned about having to share her police department pension with him.

Prosecutors said that in her text messages to her boyfriend, Cincinelli complained of his buying “her Ugg’s and Louis viutton [sic] bags…must be nice…Wish I had one…Maybe it’s real like the Michael Kors ones you bought her.” She also complained about his paying for his daughter’s “fake nails every week” and “Sephora make up.”

Prosecutors said Cincinelli queried the internet on her cellphone on topics such as “if your ex dies do you get your whole pension,” and “is your ex entitled to a disability pension in a divorce ny.” She went online for stories on the Fisher case, a 1992 media sensation, and Joey Buttafuoco's lawyer.

Fisher, then a 17-year-old student from Merrick, was having an affair with 38-year-old Joey Buttafuoco, who refused to leave his wife Mary Jo and attempted to end the relationship. Fisher went to the Buttafuoccos' Massapequa home and shot Mary Jo Buttafuocco in the head. She survived, and Fisher, dubbed the Long Island Lolita, served seven years in prison for the assault.

At the time of Fisher’s arrest, a police detective said of her relationship with Buttafuoco: “[Fisher] wanted him, and he didn’t want her anymore … If she couldn’t have him, no one else could. She was obsessed with him.”

Prosecutors say the texts showed Cincinelli suspected the boyfriend would spend the $100,000 he was supposed to receive from a real estate sale on his daughter, who she believed lived in New Jersey. “Yea well I feel threatened you have a relationship…in Jersey behind my back,” Cincinelli texted in one message, the prosecutors said.

Cincinelli’s attorney, James Kousouros, could not be reached for comment. Eastern District spokesman John Marzulli declined to comment.

U.S. District Judge Sandra Feuerstein in Central Islip has said she would decide on bail for Cincinelli after reviewing the government's audio and video recordings and cellphone records in the case, and after a psychiatric report is done on Cincinelli.