A Manhattan federal judge yesterday refused to set bail for the alleged co-conspirator in the notorious “cannibal cop” case — after a prosecutor said the New Jersey man had discussed raping an infant during an Internet chat.
Michael Van Hise, 22, told an unidentified person he met online that he wanted to “do the newborn,” assistant US attorney Randall Jackson said.
“Yeah, it’d be hot to hold a newborn between us [and have sex with it simultaneously],” the other person responded, Jackson said.
Judge William Pauley III said the allegations against Van Hise represented “really shocking, depraved and violent conduct” that’s “so far beyond the pale, and presents such a great danger to the community, that there is no set of conditions the court can conceive of that could be set for bail for the defendant.”
Outside the courtroom, defense lawyer Alice Fontier said she believed that Van Hise’s shocking exchange came while he was cooperating with the FBI.
Fontier also told the judge that Van Hise never meant anything he wrote online, and repeatedly went to the Hamilton, NJ, police department to report people he thought were serious, so they would get arrested.
“When the FBI showed up on his doorstep, he was happy,” she said.