A Manhattan judge who privately screened an “extremely disturbing” torture flick found in the home of a former Stuyvesant High School librarian said Monday he will likely allow an undercover FBI agent to testify about the content of the sadistic black-market movie.
“My inclination would be to permit the agent to testify generally on the contents of the video,” Judge Paul Gardephe said of the 40-minute “Pain 35” confiscated from the Greenwich Village pad of Christopher Asch, 62.
“The video is extremely disturbing. Extremely disturbing,” the judge said. “[But] the fact that it’s disturbing doesn’t mean it doesn’t shed light on what Mr. Asch’s state of mind may have been at that time.”
Asch and alleged co-conspirator Michael Van Hise, 23, of New Jersey, were online pals of infamous NYPD “Cannibal Cop” Giberto Valle. The twisted duo are accused of plotting to kidnap, rape and murder women and children. Jury selection began Monday morning and is ongoing.
Gardephe said he will wait to rule until after he hears the FBI agent’s testimony without a jury present.
The video depicts two men torturing two nearly-naked women with nipple clamps, a leg spreader, handcuffs, riding crop and rope, and has scenes in which the men insert needles into one of the women’s private parts.
Prosecutors have argued that Asch used the video as a “how-to” guide for carrying out his alleged grizzly plot, and that the FBI believes the women in the movie are actually being tortured.
They want an agent to describe Pain 35 in detail to a jury.
Asch’s lawyer, Brian Waller, has said the movie is simply an S&M fetish flick.
The judge said Monday he has also reviewed photos of instruments used in Pain 35 and that Asch allegedly owned – including nipple clamps, leg-spreaders and needles – and brought to a meeting with the undercover FBI agent.
Waller said the instruments are “all common items” in the S&M world, and that the connection between the torture toys in the video and the ones Asch had don’t show intent to kidnap.
Former cop Valle was convicted last year of a plot to kidnap, cook and eat women.
Additional reporting by Rich Calder