SALT LAKE CITY — A man accused of faking his death and fleeing the U.S. to avoid rape charges in Utah denied during a trial Tuesday that he is the suspect and called out allegations that he did not give his real name, with a apparent British accent, ‘full rumours’. .”
Nicholas Rossi, whose legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian, is accused of raping a 21-year-old woman in Orem, Utah in 2008, prosecutors said. He wasn’t identified as a suspect until about a decade later due to a backlog of DNA testing kits at the Utah State Crime Lab.
Rossi, 36, was extradited from Scotland earlier this month. He identified himself Tuesday as Arthur Knight Brown and gave a date of birth in British English — with the day first, followed by the month and year — that is different from Rossi’s, KSTU-TV reported.
He emerged from jail via video wearing an oxygen mask and did not enter a plea at the first court appearance. He was sometimes difficult to understand and had to lift the mask to be heard.
Assistant Salt Lake County Attorney Tamara Basuez said Rossi has not released his name or date of birth since returning to Utah.
“Objection, ma’am, those are rumors,” Rossi told the judge.
Rossi is jailed without the ability to post bail in the Orem case. The judge set a detention hearing for January 26.
The judge said an attorney would be appointed for Rossi. He said he has one, but the attorney has not received notice of Tuesday’s hearing.
Rossi, who grew up in foster care in Rhode Island, made a name for himself there as an outspoken critic of the state’s Department of Children, Youth and Families.
Four years ago, he told the media in Rhode Island that he had advanced stage non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and had weeks to live. An obituary published online claims he died on February 29, 2020.
Prosecutors say he used at least 10 different aliases over the years.
Authorities said his run from the law ended when he was arrested in December 2021 after being recognized by someone at a hospital in Glasgow, Scotland, while being treated for COVID-19. He insisted that he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight who had never set foot on American soil.
The man had said he was framed by authorities who took his fingerprints while he was in a coma so they could link him to Rossi. He has repeatedly appeared in court in a wheelchair, wearing an oxygen mask and speaking with the apparent British accent.
After a lengthy trial, Judge Norman McFadyen at Edinburgh Sheriff Court ruled in August that the extradition could go ahead. The judge called Rossi “as dishonest and deceptive as he was evasive and manipulative.”