Nick Alahverdian is without a lawyer, but his case moves forward in Utah
After weeks of delays, the prosecution of former Rhode Island fugitive Nicholas Alahverdian inched a bit closer Friday when a Utah judge set down a June 12 date for the first preliminary hearing in his two rape cases.
The 36-year-old, who faked his death in 2020 until his capture in Scotland in December 2021, is charged with two Utah rapes in 2008. The two cases are playing out in different county courts.
The sexual assault cases
Authorities say he raped a 21-year-old Orem woman in September 2008. The two met online and had been dating for a few weeks before breaking up over his growingly aggressive nature, she told police.
He raped her, police say, after luring her back to his apartment with the promise he would repay her money owed her.
Then in November or December of 2008, he raped a 26-year-old woman in Salt Lake City, police say. Again the couple had met online, dated briefly and even bought wedding rings.
But after a violent argument at a shopping mall – Alahverdian threatened to call the police and report she had hit him if she didn’t let him back in her car – the two returned to his apartment where he raped her, police say.
Alahverdian without an attorney
In Alahverdian’s Orem rape case, a judge earlier this week gave him another month to hire a defense attorney before he will be appointed a public defender.
On Friday, Alahverdian told District Court Judge Barry G. Lawrence he and his wife, Miranda, who remains in the United Kingdom, were still working to secure a private attorney in Utah.
Alahverdian, who professes to be an innocent Englishman, is charged under the name Rossi, which is the surname of his Rhode Island stepfather who adopted him when he was an adolescent. Alahverdian is his birth name.
Alahverdian faked his death, fled to the UK
Alahverdian, once a familiar State House advocate for child welfare reform, set in place plans to fake his death in January 2020, weeks after speaking to an FBI agents about allegations he committed $200,000 in credit card fraud under his foster father’s name, The Journal has previously reported.
That month, Alahverdian, already in the United Kingdom, began sending out press releases to Rhode Island media outlets announcing he had been diagnosed with late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma and was soon to die.
On Feb. 29, 2020, another press release from “The Office of Nicholas Alahverdian” announced his death. And a woman who identified herself as his wife began making calls to reporters, pressuring them to report on his death and the upcoming memorial service.
The fake announcement didn’t stop international authorities from seeking his arrest. On Dec. 13, 2021, Scottish police arrested Alahverdian in a Glasgow hospital, where he had been suffering from COVID.
Contact Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Nicholas Rossi's lawyer quits in Utah case, hearing date set
