American fugitive Nicholas Rossi who faked his death can be extradited to US to face rape charge, UK judge says
The wished man identified in Scotland as Nicholas Rossi has fought his return since being arrested in December 2021 at a Glasgow hospital, the place he was being handled for Covid-19. He repeatedly appeared in court docket — and in a number of tv interviews — in a wheelchair utilizing an oxygen masks and talking in a British accent. He insisted he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight who had by no means set foot on American soil.
However Choose Norman McFadyen of Edinburgh Sheriff Courtroom had beforehand dismissed the fugitive’s claims of mistaken identification as “implausible” and “fanciful” after the person mentioned he had been framed by authorities who tattooed him and surreptitiously took his fingerprints whereas he was in a coma so they might join him to Rossi.
“I conclude that he’s as dishonest and deceitful as he’s evasive and manipulative,” McFadyen mentioned. “These unlucky aspects of his character have undoubtedly sophisticated and prolonged what’s finally a simple case.”
McFadyen mentioned Rossi had introduced unreliable proof and he was not “ready to just accept any assertion of reality made by him until it was independently supported.”
Scottish authorities ministers will overview McFadyen’s ruling to find out whether or not to difficulty an extradition order.
US authorities mentioned Rossi is one in every of a number of aliases the 36-year-old has used and that his authorized identify is Nicholas Alahverdian, who faces a 2008 rape cost in Utah.
Alahverdian is charged with sexually assaulting a former girlfriend in Orem, Utah, in response to the Utah County prosecutor’s workplace. The workplace mentioned it discovered complaints alleging Alahverdian abused and threatened girls in different states.
Authorities in Rhode Island have mentioned Alahverdian is needed there for failing to register as a intercourse offender, although his former lawyer there, Jeffrey Pine, mentioned the cost was dropped when he left the state. The FBI has mentioned he additionally faces fraud prices in Ohio, the place he was convicted of sex-related prices in 2008.
Alahverdian, who grew up in Rhode Island, was an outspoken critic of the state’s Division of Kids, Youth and Households. He testified earlier than state lawmakers that he was sexually abused and tortured in momentary shelters by workers and shoppers and finally shipped out of state to services for troubled youths.
Three years in the past, he advised media in Rhode Island he had late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma and had weeks to stay. An obituary printed on-line claimed he died Feb. 29, 2020.
A couple of 12 months later, Rhode Island state police, together with Alahverdian’s former lawyer and his former foster household, forged doubt on whether or not he had died.
Pine, the previous Rhode Island state legal professional common, who represented Rossi on the misdemeanor intercourse offender registry cost, mentioned he had little doubt the person claiming to be Knight is his former consumer. He additionally mentioned he believes he suffered some sort of abuse within the foster care system.
“I’ve a sense there’s greater than a kernel of reality to his story,” he advised The Related Press on Wednesday. “However I believe anybody who fakes his personal demise goes to have his credibility questioned.”
Rossi fired six legal professionals in Scotland and had tried unsuccessfully to dismiss his newest legal professional, Mungo Bovey, who sought to delay proceedings Wednesday.
Bovey argued that extraditing Rossi could be a “flagrant breach” of his human rights.
In a video hyperlink from jail, the person identified within the U.Ok. courts as Rossi was doubled over and claimed to be sick. He didn’t reply when requested if he was Rossi.
The choose mentioned he had appeared voluntarily, however in an outburst, the person mentioned guards used bodily drive to place him earlier than the digicam and he known as the choose “a shame to justice.”
The prosecutor has mentioned the inmate didn’t endure from any situation that may forestall his extradition.
Throughout a listening to in June, the jailed man mentioned the muscle tissue in his legs had atrophied a lot that he wanted a wheelchair and could not elevate his arms over his head.
Psychiatrists who examined him discovered no indicators of acute psychological sickness and a physician questioned his want for a wheelchair, saying his legs had been sturdy and athletic. Dr. Barbara Mundweil mentioned she had seen video of him kicking a jail officer within the face.
Former Rhode Island state Rep. Brian Coogan mentioned he had grown to love Alahverdian a lot when he labored as a teenage web page within the Statehouse that he thought-about adopting him at one level.
However a household court docket choose talked him out of it, saying the boy was a “monster” who would damage his life. When Alahverdian tried to reconcile years later and advised him he was dying, Coogan mentioned he did not imagine it and known as him a con artist.
He was overjoyed to study of the ruling.
“I pumped my fists and yelled as loud as I might and burned the again of my throat,” Coogan mentioned. “It’s been a very long time I’ve been ready for this child to come back to justice.”
