NEW YORK — The 2 males charged in an alleged kidnapping and torture case in SoHo have pleaded not responsible to costs towards them on Wednesday.
John Woeltz, 37, and William Duplessie, 32, who allegedly tortured a person in a luxe Manhattan townhouse to acquire his Bitcoin password, pleaded not responsible to costs of kidnapping, assault and coercion stemming from the alleged torture of a person in a luxe SoHo townhouse to acquire his cryptocurrency.
Decide Gregory Carro ordered them to stay held with out bail by way of their subsequent look July 15
A prosecutor, Sarah Kahn, confirmed the choose a photograph that she mentioned depicted the alleged sufferer on fireplace. She mentioned the defendants would pour tequila on him, mild him on fireplace, after which put the fireplace out – typically by urinating on him.
Woeltz and Duplessie pistol-whipped the sufferer with a gun, minimize him with a small chainsaw, and used varied different devices as a part of the torture, Kahn mentioned.
She mentioned prosecutors have had conversations with different, unnamed, legislation enforcement companies that indicated Woeltz and Duplessie have tortured folks earlier than. She didn’t elaborate.
The protection pushed again, saying there may be video of the alleged sufferer “having the time of his life,” and interesting in exercise at odds with having been tortured.
The protection attorneys mentioned they obtained a distinct video from an eyeglass retailer taken 36 hours earlier than the alleged sufferer left the townhouse that purportedly exhibits him smoking a cigarette by himself on the road.
“The story that he’s promoting simply would not make sense,” protection legal professional Sam Talkin, who represents Duplessie, instructed the choose.
Prosecutors haven’t seen the video and Kahn mentioned, “Victims of abuse aren’t all the time going to ask in a manner that we count on folks to do.”
A search of the townhouse turned up cocaine, a noticed, hen wire, physique armor, evening imaginative and prescient goggles, ammunition and Polaroid pictures of the sufferer with a gun pointed to his head, in line with prosecutors.
(ABC Information and The Related Press contributed to this report.)
Copyright © 2025 KABC Tv, LLC. All rights reserved.
