Credit: AP
Credit: AP
In 2020, Rossi, who allegedly faked his own death, traveled overseas to escape rape charges in Utah’s Salt Lake County and Utah County. But his con crumbled while being treated for COVID-19 in a Glasgow hospital after employees recognized his tattoos, which he claimed were inked onto his body while he was in a coma. Trial dates have not been set for the two sexual assault and battery cases he is facing. He will remain in custody until the trial.
Beth Karas, former New York City assistant district attorney and the series' guiding voice, described Rossi’s performance in court, complete with a skittish British accent, as “hard to watch.”
“It could be a cringe comedy if the stakes weren’t so real,” Karas said. “Rossi has left so many alleged victims in his wake, many whose cases were never fully investigated. In part because of his manipulation of the system and the false realities he created. A once promising but troubled teen turned predatory monster.”
The episode also features interviews with Rossi’s stepfather and former Engelbert Humperdinck impersonator David Rossi, former Rhode Island State Representative Brian Coogan, former Utah prosecutor David Leavitt and food entrepreneur Nafsika Antypas.
“As a con man, this guy is good,” Karas said. “He leverages what little credibility and goodwill he has left with influential people, with enough distance from him, to buy it. And it works.”
Rossi, 37, was also recently featured on “Dateline NBC” in the Dec. 13 episode titled “The Man of Many Faces.”
Rossi in 2008 was convicted of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old Sinclair Community College student in the staircase of a building located on the school’s downtown Dayton campus.
That same year, he was accused of sexual misconduct by another female Sinclair student. No criminal charges were filed related to that incident.
Rossi also was identified as a potential suspect in a 2016 fraud case from his time living in the Dayton area.
According to a Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office report, Rossi was suspected of opening up multiple financial accounts in the name of one of his foster parents without their consent.
An obituary published online claimed Rossi died on Feb. 29, 2020, of late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Cornelius Frolik contributed to this story.
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