NEW YORK -- Don't call him the "cannibal cop" anymore.

A federal appeals court on Thursday tossed the final remaining conviction of Gilberto Valle, a former NYPD officer who was infamously prosecuted for fantasizing on an online forum about cooking and eating his wife and other women alive -- from a work computer.

The ghastly details of the Valle case and his 2013 trial fueled a media maelstrom in New York -- even inspiring an HBO documentary . But last year, a federal judge threw out a jury verdict convicting Valle of the most serious charge he faced -- kidnapping conspiracy -- ruling the evidence insufficient.

"Despite the highly disturbing nature of Valles deviant and depraved sexual interests," U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe wrote in 2014, "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 Valle's separate conviction under the federal anti-hacking statute -- the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act -- reasoning that his use of various government databases to look up women with "no law enforcement purpose" meant that he violated the law.