FILE - In this July 1, 2014, file photo, with his mother Elizabeth Valle by his side, GIlberto Valle, left, makes a short statement to the assembled media as he leaves Manhattan federal court in New York. It’s clearly illegal to hack into someone else’s computer network and steal information from it. But what about a police officer who uses his own department’s computer database to look up women from his past? A federal appeals court in New York is weighing the issue in the case of Gilberto Valle, a former New York City police detective dubbed the "cannibal cop" for his online exchanges about kidnapping and eating women. Though a judge dismissed most of the case, Valle is appealing his conviction for using an NYPD database to look up women he targeted. His supporters say that action could not have been a crime because, as an officer, he was entitled to access the database. (AP Photo/Seth Weng)