Former fugitive who faked death weighs offer from prosecutors in rape case
by BRIAN CRANDALL, NBC 10 NEWS
Accused rapist Nicholas Alahverdian, a Rhode Island native who faked his death and a new identity, is weighing an offer from prosecutors in Utah, his attorney said in a court hearing Tuesday.
Alahverdian, known as Nicholas Rossi in Utah, is charged with two sexual assaults from 2008, in different Utah counties.
In a court hearing in Utah County Tuesday, Alahverdian did not appear on camera remotely as a correctional officer said he did not want to appear because he believed a new hearing date would be set.
Alahverdian’s lawyer, Daniel Diaz, told the judge that Alahverdian got “a formal offer” from the district attorney’s office earlier in the day and wanted to give Alahverdian time to “think it over.”
A new hearing is scheduled for Dec. 3.
An April trial date was set last week in the other case in Salt Lake County.
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Alahverdian was arrested in Scotland in late 2021 on a warrant out of Utah.
He claimed to be someone else, Arthur Knight, who had never been to the United States.
A judge in Scotland ultimately ruled he was the same person who was wanted in Utah.
Alahverdian was extradited to Utah earlier this year.
He admitted in a courtroom there last month that he is indeed Nicholas Alahverdian, claiming he faked an identity because he feared for his safety.
Investigators said in court last month that Alahverdian knew he was being investigated for fraud in Ohio when he left the United States in 2017.
Alahverdian befriended lawmakers at the Rhode Island State House more than a decade ago, first as a teenage page then as an activist pushing for reform of the state Department of Children, Youth and Families.