American fugitive who faked his death can be extradited to US to encounter rape demand, United kingdom choose suggests
LONDON — An American fugitive accused of faking his individual death to stay clear of a rape charge in Utah can be extradited to the U.S., a judge in Scotland ruled Wednesday, calling the man “as dishonest and deceitful as he is evasive and manipulative.”
The preferred guy acknowledged in Scotland as Nicholas Rossi has fought his return considering the fact that being arrested in December 2021 at a Glasgow clinic, where by he was getting treated for COVID-19. He frequently appeared in court docket — and in a number of television interviews — in a wheelchair utilizing an oxygen mask and speaking in a British accent. He insisted he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight who had never ever set foot on American soil.
But Decide Norman McFadyen of Edinburgh Sheriff Courtroom had previously dismissed the fugitive’s promises of mistaken identity as “implausible” and “fanciful” right after the guy explained he had been framed by authorities who tattooed him and surreptitiously took his fingerprints although he was in a coma so they could join him to Rossi.
“I conclude that he is as dishonest and deceitful as he is evasive and manipulative,” McFadyen mentioned. “These regrettable aspects of his character have undoubtedly complex and prolonged what is eventually a clear-cut situation.”
McFadyen reported Rossi experienced offered unreliable proof and he was not “prepared to accept any assertion of point produced by him except if it was independently supported.”
Scottish authorities ministers will evaluation McFadyen’s ruling to establish whether to issue an extradition get.
U.S. authorities mentioned Rossi is a single of a number of aliases the 36-year-aged has utilized and that his legal title is Nicholas Alahverdian, who faces a 2008 rape demand in Utah.
Alahverdian is billed with sexually assaulting a former girlfriend in Orem, Utah, in accordance to the Utah County prosecutor’s business office. The place of work reported it located grievances alleging Alahverdian abused and threatened women in other states.
Authorities in Rhode Island have explained Alahverdian is wanted there for failing to register as a intercourse offender, nevertheless his previous attorney there, Jeffrey Pine, said the demand was dropped when he still left the point out. The FBI has said he also faces fraud fees in Ohio, exactly where he was convicted of intercourse-linked expenses in 2008.
Alahverdian, who grew up in Rhode Island, was an outspoken critic of the state’s Division of Youngsters, Youth and Family members. He testified before condition lawmakers that he was sexually abused and tortured in short term shelters by employees and clients and inevitably transported out of state to services for troubled youths.
3 several years in the past, he explained to media in Rhode Island he had late-phase non-Hodgkin lymphoma and experienced weeks to are living. An obituary released on the web claimed he died Feb. 29, 2020.
About a year later on, Rhode Island state law enforcement, together with Alahverdian’s former law firm and his former foster relatives, solid question on regardless of whether he had died.
Pine, the former Rhode Island state attorney general, who represented Rossi on the misdemeanor sexual intercourse offender registry demand, explained he experienced no doubt the guy proclaiming to be Knight is his previous shopper. He also said he believes he endured some variety of abuse in the foster care procedure.
“I have a feeling you can find much more than a kernel of reality to his tale,” he instructed The Related Push on Wednesday. “But I feel anyone who fakes his personal dying is heading to have his credibility questioned.”
Rossi fired six attorneys in Scotland and had tried unsuccessfully to dismiss his most recent lawyer, Mungo Bovey, who sought to hold off proceedings Wednesday.
Bovey argued that extraditing Rossi would be a “flagrant breach” of his human rights.
In a movie connection from jail, the guy recognised in the U.K. courts as Rossi was doubled about and claimed to be unwell. He did not answer when requested if he was Rossi.
The choose reported he experienced appeared voluntarily, but in an outburst, the gentleman reported guards utilized physical pressure to put him ahead of the digicam and he called the judge “a disgrace to justice.”
The prosecutor has explained the inmate did not undergo from any situation that would avert his extradition.
All through a listening to in June, the jailed gentleman reported the muscle tissues in his legs experienced atrophied so considerably that he wanted a wheelchair and could not carry his arms in excess of his head.
Psychiatrists who examined him located no symptoms of acute psychological health issues and a medical professional questioned his will need for a wheelchair, stating his legs were solid and athletic. Dr. Barbara Mundweil explained she experienced witnessed video of him kicking a prison officer in the deal with.
Former Rhode Island state Rep. Brian Coogan stated he experienced developed to like Alahverdian so significantly when he worked as a teenage web site in the Statehouse that he considered adopting him at a single issue.
But a family members court docket judge talked him out of it, stating the boy was a “monster” who would destroy his existence. When Alahverdian tried out to reconcile yrs later and instructed him he was dying, Coogan reported he did not think it and known as him a con artist.
He was overjoyed to master of the ruling.
“I pumped my fists and yelled as loud as I could and burned the back of my throat,” Coogan explained. “It’s been a lengthy time I’ve been waiting around for this kid to occur to justice.”
___
Pratt noted from Boston.
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LONDON — An American fugitive accused of faking his individual death to stay clear of a rape charge in Utah can be extradited to the U.S., a judge in Scotland ruled Wednesday, calling the man “as dishonest and deceitful as he is evasive and manipulative.”
The preferred guy acknowledged in Scotland as Nicholas Rossi has fought his return considering the fact that being arrested in December 2021 at a Glasgow clinic, where by he was getting treated for COVID-19. He frequently appeared in court docket — and in a number of television interviews — in a wheelchair utilizing an oxygen mask and speaking in a British accent. He insisted he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight who had never ever set foot on American soil.
But Decide Norman McFadyen of Edinburgh Sheriff Courtroom had previously dismissed the fugitive’s promises of mistaken identity as “implausible” and “fanciful” right after the guy explained he had been framed by authorities who tattooed him and surreptitiously took his fingerprints although he was in a coma so they could join him to Rossi.
“I conclude that he is as dishonest and deceitful as he is evasive and manipulative,” McFadyen mentioned. “These regrettable aspects of his character have undoubtedly complex and prolonged what is eventually a clear-cut situation.”
McFadyen reported Rossi experienced offered unreliable proof and he was not “prepared to accept any assertion of point produced by him except if it was independently supported.”
Scottish authorities ministers will evaluation McFadyen’s ruling to establish whether to issue an extradition get.
U.S. authorities mentioned Rossi is a single of a number of aliases the 36-year-aged has utilized and that his legal title is Nicholas Alahverdian, who faces a 2008 rape demand in Utah.
Alahverdian is billed with sexually assaulting a former girlfriend in Orem, Utah, in accordance to the Utah County prosecutor’s business office. The place of work reported it located grievances alleging Alahverdian abused and threatened women in other states.
Authorities in Rhode Island have explained Alahverdian is wanted there for failing to register as a intercourse offender, nevertheless his previous attorney there, Jeffrey Pine, said the demand was dropped when he still left the point out. The FBI has said he also faces fraud fees in Ohio, exactly where he was convicted of intercourse-linked expenses in 2008.
Alahverdian, who grew up in Rhode Island, was an outspoken critic of the state’s Division of Youngsters, Youth and Family members. He testified before condition lawmakers that he was sexually abused and tortured in short term shelters by employees and clients and inevitably transported out of state to services for troubled youths.
3 several years in the past, he explained to media in Rhode Island he had late-phase non-Hodgkin lymphoma and experienced weeks to are living. An obituary released on the web claimed he died Feb. 29, 2020.
About a year later on, Rhode Island state law enforcement, together with Alahverdian’s former law firm and his former foster relatives, solid question on regardless of whether he had died.
Pine, the former Rhode Island state attorney general, who represented Rossi on the misdemeanor sexual intercourse offender registry demand, explained he experienced no doubt the guy proclaiming to be Knight is his previous shopper. He also said he believes he endured some variety of abuse in the foster care procedure.
“I have a feeling you can find much more than a kernel of reality to his tale,” he instructed The Related Push on Wednesday. “But I feel anyone who fakes his personal dying is heading to have his credibility questioned.”
Rossi fired six attorneys in Scotland and had tried unsuccessfully to dismiss his most recent lawyer, Mungo Bovey, who sought to hold off proceedings Wednesday.
Bovey argued that extraditing Rossi would be a “flagrant breach” of his human rights.
In a movie connection from jail, the guy recognised in the U.K. courts as Rossi was doubled about and claimed to be unwell. He did not answer when requested if he was Rossi.
The choose reported he experienced appeared voluntarily, but in an outburst, the gentleman reported guards utilized physical pressure to put him ahead of the digicam and he called the judge “a disgrace to justice.”
The prosecutor has explained the inmate did not undergo from any situation that would avert his extradition.
All through a listening to in June, the jailed gentleman reported the muscle tissues in his legs experienced atrophied so considerably that he wanted a wheelchair and could not carry his arms in excess of his head.
Psychiatrists who examined him located no symptoms of acute psychological health issues and a medical professional questioned his will need for a wheelchair, stating his legs were solid and athletic. Dr. Barbara Mundweil explained she experienced witnessed video of him kicking a prison officer in the deal with.
Former Rhode Island state Rep. Brian Coogan stated he experienced developed to like Alahverdian so significantly when he worked as a teenage web site in the Statehouse that he considered adopting him at a single issue.
But a family members court docket judge talked him out of it, stating the boy was a “monster” who would destroy his existence. When Alahverdian tried out to reconcile yrs later and instructed him he was dying, Coogan reported he did not think it and known as him a con artist.
He was overjoyed to master of the ruling.
“I pumped my fists and yelled as loud as I could and burned the back of my throat,” Coogan explained. “It’s been a lengthy time I’ve been waiting around for this kid to occur to justice.”
___
Pratt noted from Boston.
