NEW YORK — A second man charged in the kidnapping and torture of an Italian man for his Bitcoin has been indicted.
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A Manhattan grand jury handed up the indictment Friday against William Duplessie, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office. The indictment will remain sealed until his arraignment June 11.
Duplessie, 32, faces charges of kidnapping, assault, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a weapon, police have said. His lawyer, in an email, declined to comment on the indictment.
Prosecutors say Duplessie and fellow crypto investor John Woeltz, 37, lured the victim to a posh townhouse in Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood on May 6 by threatening to kill his family.
The man, a 28-year-old Italian national who has not been named by officials, said he was then held captive for 17 days, as the two investors tormented him with electrical wires, forced him to smoke from a crack pipe and at one point dangled him from a staircase five stories high.
He eventually agreed to hand over his computer password Friday morning, then managed to flee the home as his captors went to retrieve the device.
The grand jury decision followed Duplessie’s brief appearance Friday morning in Manhattan court.
William Duplessie, charged with kidnapping and torture for trying to steal a man’s Bitcoin password, appears with his defense attorney Sanford Talkin, left, in Manhattan Criminal court, Friday, May 30, 2025. (Jefferson Siegel/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
William Duplessie appears in Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on Friday, May 30, 2025. (Curtis Means/Dailymail.com via AP, Pool)
William Duplessie appears in Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on Friday, May 30, 2025. (Curtis Means/Dailymail.com via AP, Pool)
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William Duplessie, charged with kidnapping and torture for trying to steal a man’s Bitcoin password, appears with his defense attorney Sanford Talkin, left, in Manhattan Criminal court, Friday, May 30, 2025. (Jefferson Siegel/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
A judge reminded him a protective order was still in effect, though he didn’t name who it was concerning.
Duplessie, who is listed as a founder or investor at various blockchain-based companies, was escorted in handcuffs and wore a prison jumpsuit. He didn’t address the court.
Both Duplessie and Woeltz remain in custody.
New York City police are also investigating two detectives who worked security at the upscale Manhattan townhouse where the man says he was kidnapped and tortured.
The detectives have been placed on modified leave pending the outcome of the inquiry. A lawyer for the labor union representing NYPD detectives said there’s “absolutely no indication” either officer witnessed any of the alleged illegal activity.
Both directions of Minnesota 97 between Hornsby Street and Falcon Avenue in Forest Lake will be closed beginning 5 a.m. Monday. The closure will remain in place through late fall, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
The work is part of a two-year, $17 million reconstruction of Minnesota 97 between Interstate 35 and U.S. 61 that includes resurfacing the road, constructing a single-lane roundabout at Fenway Avenue and adding turn lanes in specific locations.
In addition, a new multi-use trail will be constructed along the south side of Minnesota 97 to provide a safer space for pedestrians and bicyclists, as well as a connection to the Hardwood Creek Regional Trail.
A raised median also will be added to divide eastbound and westbound traffic on the two-lane roadway; the median also will serve as an accessible pedestrian crossing.
Minnesota 97 will be open to traffic between Falcon Avenue and U.S. 61, and Hornsby Street and all I-35 ramps will remain open, according to a MnDOT news release. Local residential and business access will be maintained throughout construction, although routes will change periodically, the release states.
Motorists can bypass the closure using the following detours:
Eastbound through traffic can use northbound I-35 to eastbound U.S. 8 to southbound U.S. 61
Westbound through traffic can use northbound U.S. 61 to westbound U.S. 8 to southbound I-35
Southbound I-35 traffic can access eastbound Minnesota 97 by using Broadway Avenue to northbound I-35 to eastbound U.S. 8 to southbound U.S. 61.
All construction activities and traffic impacts are weather and schedule dependent and subject to change, according to MnDOT.
MASSAPEQUA, N.Y. (AP) — New York is discriminating against a school district that refuses to get rid of its Native American chief mascot and could face a Justice Department investigation or risk losing federal funding, President Donald Trump’s top education official said Friday.
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U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, on a visit to Massapequa High School on Long Island, said an investigation by her agency has determined that state education officials violated Title VI of the federal civil rights law by banning the use of Native American mascots and logos statewide.
The department’s civil rights office found the state ban is discriminatory because names and mascots derived from other racial or ethnic groups, such as the “Dutchmen” and the “Huguenots,” are still permitted.
McMahon described Massapequa’s chiefs mascot as an “incredible” representation of Native American leadership as she made the announcement backed by dozens of students and local officials in the high school gymnasium.
“The Trump Administration will not stand idly by as state leaders attempt to eliminate the history and culture of Native American tribes,” the former longtime CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment said.
McMahon said her department will give the state ten days to sign an agreement rescinding its Native American mascot ban and apologizing to Native Americans for having discriminated against them and attempted to “erase” their history.
JP O’Hare, a spokesperson for the New York education department, dismissed McMahon’s visit as “political theater” and said the school district was doing a “grave disservice” to its students by refusing to consult with local tribes about their concerns.
“These representatives will tell them, as they have told us, that certain Native American names and images perpetuate negative stereotypes and are demonstrably harmful to children,” he said in a statement.
Representatives from the Native American Guardians Association, who voiced support for keeping the chief mascot at Thursday’s event, also don’t speak on behalf of local Indigenous residents, despite claims from school officials, said Adam Drexler, a Massapequa resident and member of the Chickasaw Nation.
“They’re Native Americans for hire,” he said, noting the group is based in North Dakota. “They have no tribal authority.”
FILE – Chiefs signs and logos are displayed Massapequa High School in Massapequa, N.Y., Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, center, joined by local elected officials speaks during a visit to Massapequa High School, Friday, May 30, 2025, in Massapequa, N.Y. (Alejandra Villa Loarca/Newsday via AP)
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, front right, visits Massapequa High School, Friday, May 30, 2025, in Massapequa, N.Y., along with local elected officials. (AP Photo/Philip Marcelo)
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, at dais, speaks during a visit to Massapequa High School, Friday, May 30, 2025, in Massapequa, N.Y., along with local elected officials. (AP Photo/Philip Marcelo)
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FILE – Chiefs signs and logos are displayed Massapequa High School in Massapequa, N.Y., Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
Meanwhile the National Congress of American Indians, considered the country’s oldest and largest Native American advocacy group, reaffirmed its long-standing opposition to the use of unsanctioned Native American imagery.
“These depictions are not tributes — they are rooted in racism, cultural appropriation, and intentional ignorance,” the organization said in a statement ahead of McMahon’s appearance.
Trump ordered the federal education department to launch an inquiry into the Massapequa mascot dispute last month, making the coastal suburb an unlikely flashpoint in the enduring debate over the place of Indigenous imagery in American sports.
Located about 40 miles east of Manhattan, the town has for years fought a state mandate to retire Native American sports names and mascots.
But its lawsuit challenging the state’s 2023 ban on constitutional grounds was dismissed by a federal judge earlier this year.
State education officials gave districts until the end of this school year to commit to replacing them or risk losing education funding.
Schools could be exempt from the mandate if they gained approval from a local Native American tribe, but Massapequa never sought such permission, state officials have said.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Trump ally who joined McMahon on the visit, echoed the sentiments of residents who support keeping the mascot. The Massapequa chief, he said, is meant to “honor” the town’s Native American heritage, not “denigrate” it.
“They’re trying to change our culture, and we’re not having it,” Blakeman said Thursday.
The town is named after the Massapequa, who were part of the broader Lenape, or Delaware, people who inhabited the woodlands of the Northeastern U.S. and Canada for thousands of years before being decimated by European colonization.
But indigenous residents on Long Island have called Massapequa’s mascot problematic as it depicts a Native American man wearing a headdress that was typically worn by tribes in the American Midwest, but not in the Northeast.
The cheery mascot also obscures Massapequa’s legacy of violence against Native Americans, which includes the site of a Native American massacre in the 1600s, Native American activists have said.
Massapequa, which is roughly 90% white, has long been a conservative bastion popular with New York City police and firefighters.
Trump visited the town last year to attend the wake of a New York City police officer and has made frequent visits to Long Island as it has shifted Republican.
PBS filed suit Friday against President Donald Trump and other administration officials to block his order stripping federal funding from the 330-station public television system, three days after NPR did the same for its radio network.
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In its lawsuit, PBS relies on similar arguments, saying Trump was overstepping his authority and engaging in “viewpoint discrimination” because of his claim that PBS’ news coverage is biased against conservatives.
“PBS disputes those charged assertions in the strongest possible terms,” lawyer Z.W. Julius Chen wrote in the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington. “But regardless of any policy disagreements over the role of public television, our Constitution and laws forbid the President from serving as the arbiter of the content of PBS’s programming, including by attempting to defund PBS.”
It was the latest of many legal actions taken against the administration for its moves, including several by media organizations impacted by Trump’s orders.
Northern Minnesota PBS station joins in the lawsuit
PBS was joined as a plaintiff by one of its stations, Lakeland PBS, which serves rural areas in northern and central Minnesota. Trump’s order is an “existential threat” to the station, the lawsuit said.
A PBS spokesman said that “after careful deliberation, PBS reached the conclusion that it was necessary to take legal action to safeguard public television’s editorial independence, and to protect the autonomy of PBS member stations.”
Through an executive order earlier this month, Trump told the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and federal agencies to stop funding the two systems. Through the corporation alone, PBS is receiving $325 million this year, most of which goes directly to individual stations.
The White House deputy press secretary, Harrison Fields, said the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers’ dime.
“Therefore, the President is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS,” Fields said. “The President was elected with a mandate to ensure efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and he will continue to use his lawful authority to achieve that objective.”
PBS, which makes much of the programming used by the stations, said it gets 22% of its revenue directly from the feds. Sixty-one percent of PBS’ budget is funded through individual station dues, and the stations raise the bulk of that money through the government.
Interrupting ‘a rich tapestry of programming’
Trump’s order “would have profound impacts on the ability of PBS and PBS member stations to provide a rich tapestry of programming to all Americans,” Chen wrote.
PBS said the U.S. Department of Education has canceled a $78 million grant to the system for educational programming, used to make children’s shows like “Sesame Street,” “Clifford the Big Red Dog” and “Reading Rainbow.”
For Minnesota residents, the order threatens the “Lakeland Learns” education program and “Lakeland News,” described in the lawsuit as the only television program in the region providing local news, weather and sports.
Besides Trump, the lawsuit names other administration officials as defendants, including Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. PBS says its technology is used as a backup for the nationwide wireless emergency alert system.
The administration has fought with several media organizations. Government-run news services like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty are struggling for their lives, The Associated Press has battled with the White House over press access and the Federal Communications Commission is investigating television news divisions.
