Authorities claim that Nicholas Alahverdian had already staged his own death and fled to Scotland before Utah County prosecutors brought rape accusations against him.
However, the very much alive Alahverdian, who also goes by the alias Nicholas Rossi, informed the judge in a British-sounding voice that he was not the alleged rapist but rather someone named Arthur Knight Brown when he virtually appeared in a Utah court on Tuesday to answer to the charges of rape, according to KUTV.
Then, according to the site, he gave Brown’s birthdate—which was different from his own—beginning with the day and going on to the month and year in line with British protocol.
Rape suspect from the United States fled the nation before being apprehended at Scottish Hospital while fighting COVID-19
Alahverdian interrupted the prosecutor when she said that since his extradition to Utah earlier this month on accusations related to a 2008 rape, Alahverdian had disputed his genuine identity and birthdate, according to the Associated Press. The prosecutor alleged that Alahverdian went by at least ten aliases.
“That is just hearsay, Alahverdian, objection, my lady,” it was purportedly remarked.
The court hearing was a major turning point in a case that has taken many unexpected turns. According to the AP, Alahverdian was listed as a suspect approximately ten years after the alleged rape of a 21-year-old woman in Orem, Utah, after the Utah State Crime Lab allegedly found his genetic material on the test while processing a backlog of DNA kit tests.
Shortly before former Utah County Prosecutor David O. Leavitt brought rape charges in August 2020, an obituary noted that “Nicholas Alahverdian” passed away on February 29, 2020, from non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
The obituary stated that he was attended by “Mrs. Alahverdian, their two children, and extended family” on his alleged deathbed and that he had said, in his last words to his immediate family, “Fear not and run toward the bliss of the sun.” It’s said that his ashes were dispersed over the water.
His old attorney, however, quickly voiced doubts about Alahverdian’s death.
Alahverdian was receiving treatment for Covid-19 at a hospital in Glasgow, Scotland, for almost two years before being taken into custody in December 2021, according to the AP.
