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Cincinelli was ordered held without bail and remains in custody in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
By Michael V. Cusenza
A disgraced former 106th Precinct police officer has pleaded not guilty to all charges outlined in an indictment accusing her of scheming to murder her estranged husband and the minor daughter of her current boyfriend.
Valerie Cincinelli, 34, was arraigned Friday on two counts of murder for hire and one count of obstruction of justice, according to federal prosecutors. She was ordered held without bail and remains in custody in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
The Oceanside, L.I., mother of two also learned late last week that she has been fired from the City Police Department following a tumultuous 12-year career.
According to the indictment unsealed Thursday in federal court in Central Islip, an FBI investigation revealed that for the last four months, Cincinelli demanded that her boyfriend, Howard Beach resident John DiRubba, hire a hitman to murder Cincinelli’s estranged husband, Isaiah Carvalho, Jr., and DiRubba’s 14-year-old daughter, who resides in New Jersey.
DiRubba, 54, turned to the feds for help. Between February 2019 and the present, according to authorities, Cincinelli and DiRubba discussed the murder-for-hire plot both in person, as well as in communications over cell phones; some of said conversations were consensually recorded at the direction of FBI agents. During those conversations, Cincinelli allegedly made it known in no uncertain terms that she wanted Carvalho and the kid dead.
DiRubba told Cincinelli that he knew someone who would kill both of them for $7,000. According to prosecutors, on or about Feb. 18, Cincinelli made a cash withdrawal of $7,000 from a TD Bank branch in Wantagh, L.I., to pay “the hitman.” Bank records confirm the cash withdrawal. Then, Cincinelli gave $7,000 in cash DiRubba to give to the hitman in payment for the murders.
According to federal officials, at approximately 10:10 a.m. Friday, at the direction of FBI agents,
Cincinelli was notified in person at her home that Carvalho had been murdered. DiRubba was with Cincinelli at the time of the notification, outfitted with a recording device at the direction of law enforcement. Almost immediately after the Suffolk County detective left Oceanside, Cincinelli began to discussed her alibi—specifically, what she would tell the police if she were to be questioned about Carvalho’s death.
Then, around 35 minutes later, an FBI agent, posing as the hitman, sent a text message to DiRubba, which included a photograph of Carvalho appearing dead in his car, and a demand for an additional $3,000 to kill DiRubba’s daughter. In response, Cincinelli instructed her boyfriend to delete the text messages and photographs, citing her fear that law enforcement could subpoena the phone.
“The audio and video recordings of [Cincinelli] discussing the murders are extremely strong evidence of her intent to have them killed,” federal prosecutors said.
Cincinelli, who was a Domestic Violence officer at the 106, had been on modified duty, with her firearms removed, since December 2017 after violating several department rules and regulations.
According to a spokesman for the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s Office, the maximum prison sentence for murder for hire is 10 years; 20 years for obstruction of justice.
