Testimony from a Russian entrepreneur brought a moment of laughter to the otherwise grim trial of the "cannibal cop."
Defense testimony for the so-called "cannibal cop" continued Tuesday with a deposition by a Russian website operator answering questions about his social networking site DarkFetishNet.com, which the defendant, New York Police Officer Gilberto Valle, allegedly used to hatch plans to kidnap, cook and eat women, Reuters reported.
"It's a social media network very similar to Facebook," Sergay Merenkov, 34, said, according to Reuters, in describing how his DarkFetishNet site works.
Merenkov said his site does everything Facebook does and that it's "just like but...oriented to people with fetishes that are not considered to be standard."
When a prosecutor asked whether Merenkov knew all of the 37,000 users of his site, Merenkov reportedly scoffed at the lawyer and quipped, "No. That's like asking Zuckerberg if he knows each and every member of Facebook.''
His response drew smiles from weary jurors, who for a week have been subject to seeing graphic images and hearing vivid testimony of sexual brutality against women, Reuters reported.
Merenkov reportedly sipped tea from a "I Love Tea" mug during his videotaped testimony, which also drew smiles from jurors, the report indicated.
According to Reuters, Merenkov testified that about 70 percent of his site's members come from the United States. Valle, dubbed the "cannibal cop" by local media, has plead not guilty to conspiracy to kidnap. If convicted he faces 20 years to life.
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