Rossi, who also has gone by the name Nicholas Alahverdian, was arrested in Scotland after allegedly faking his own death and moving to the U.K. in 2020, where he went by the name Arthur Knight and claimed to be an Irish orphan. Rossi was arrested by Scottish authorities after he was hospitalized with COVID and officials were able to match his tattoos to Rossi, who was a fugitive.
Rossi for a while spoke in a British accent and claimed that criminal allegations in Utah had nothing to do with him until after he was extradited back to the United States, Brandon Simmons, deputy district attorney at the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office in Utah, said in court on Monday. Simmons said Rossi finally admitted his real identity under oath in October 2024.
Rossi’s ex-fiancée said they got engaged after just a couple of weeks of dating, but the whirlwind romance ran into immediate problems after their engagement, saying Rossi became abusive and controlling. She said Rossi became angry when she decided to end their relationship, and he held her down and sexually assaulted her at his home.
The woman said she told her parents Rossi had raped her, but they did not do anything about it and seemed not to care.
“A long time has passed, but (the victim) never forgot what he did to her during their month-long relationship,” said Simmons. “A long time has passed, but there’s still evidence that supports her memory of what happened.”
Samantha Dugan, Rossi’s defense attorney, during opening statements said the prosecutor’s case is an incomplete collection of puzzle pieces that do not fit together. She said the accuser’s story has changed over time and can’t be verified.
“At the end, when you try to put this puzzle together, you’re going to have big gaps,” she said. “You’re going to have pieces from different puzzles. You’re not going to get a complete picture.”
Dugan said the alleged victim in the case made the rape allegations 13 years after she was in a relationship with Rossi that ended badly, after she saw him arrested on the news.
Another woman, who was in a romantic relationship with Rossi for multiple weeks in late summer of 2008, also testified that he sexually assaulted her.
The now 39-year-old woman said she first started talking to Rossi on Myspace, a social networking platform, and they met in person about a week later. She said Rossi seemed intelligent and nice, and they were intimate on multiple occasions.
The woman said Rossi spent her money and didn’t pay her back. Among other details, she said he often belittled and yelled at her.
The woman said she wanted to end their relationship, but she went to see Rossi because he said he had money to repay her. The woman said Rossi then sexually assaulted her. She reported the assault to police and completed a rape kit, the woman said.
In regard to that incident, Rossi was interviewed by police in 2008 and he claimed his accuser actually sexually assaulted him.
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