Officer Gilberto Valle's 2013 conviction of kidnapping conspiracy was overturned Monday when the judge ruled there was insufficient evidence that Valle planned to actually kill and eat anyone.

Judge Paul G Gardephe of Federal District Court in Manhattan, overturned Valle's kidnapping conspiracy charge, which could have carried a life sentence.

The former police officer was convicted in March 2013 of plotting to kidnap, torture, kill and eat women. This garnered him the nickname 'cannibal cop.' Valle was awaiting his sentence while his federal public defenders argued for a new trial.

Although he never kidnapped or physically harmed anyone, Valle was prosecuted after repeatedly visiting a fetish website and chatting with people online about how he wanted to kidnap and cook his wife and other women. According to the New York Times, the defense argued that Mr. Valle was protected by the Constitution for "the right to fantasize about whatever and whomever they like, free from government interference."

Prosecutors countered that the officer took "concrete steps" toward harming someone by illegally researching and surveilling potential victims that he found through a police database, as well as researching ways to abduct and torture people.

"He left the world of fantasy; he entered the world of reality," Hadassa Waxman, one prosecutor, said in court.

Chat room exchanges read in court described Valle's desire to cook a woman alive.

"I want her to experience being cooked alive," he wrote. "She'll be trussed up like a turkey ... She'll be terrified, screaming and crying."

In another online conversation, Valle told others he knew of a particular woman that would be an easy target since she lived alone.

Despite the electronic transcripts, Judge Gardephe disagreed with the prosecution and wrote that "once the lies and the fantastical elements are stripped away, what is left are deeply disturbing misogynistic chats and emails written by an individual obsessed with imagining women he knows suffering horrific sex-related pain, terror and degradation ... Despite the highly disturbing nature of Valle's deviant and depraved sexual interests, his chats and emails about these interests are not sufficient -- standing alone -- to make out the elements of conspiracy to commit kidnapping."

The judge upheld the conviction on a second count of Valle illegally gaining access to law enforcement databases, which carries a maximum one-year sentence. He also said there would be a hearing Tuesday, likely to discuss the status of the case.

Mr. Valle, who has been imprisoned since late 2012, was fired by the Police Department upon his conviction.