this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2024
104 points (97.3% liked)

News

23275 readers
3519 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

A man accused of faking his death and fleeing the U.S. to avoid rape charges in Utah denied at a court appearance Tuesday that he is the suspect and, in an apparent British accent, called allegations that he wasn’t giving his true name “complete hearsay.”

Nicholas Rossi, whose legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian, is charged with the rape of a 21-year-old woman in Orem, Utah, in 2008, prosecutors said. He wasn’t identified as a suspect until about a decade later due to a backlog of DNA test kits at the Utah State Crime Lab.

Rossi, 36, was extradited from Scotland earlier this month. He identified himself Tuesday as Arthur Knight Brown and gave a birthdate in British English — listing the day first, followed by the month and year — that is different from Rossi’s, KSTU-TV reported.

He appeared from jail via video wearing an oxygen mask and did not enter a plea at the initial court appearance. He was difficult to understand at times and had to lift up the mask to be heard.

top 6 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] jballs@sh.itjust.works 20 points 10 months ago (3 children)

What a wild story. I feel like there's more behind the scenes that's not being said. According to the article, hospital staff recognized him while he was on a ventilator in Glasgow, Scotland as being a suspect in a rape that took place in Utah more than a decade earlier. Then later confirmed it was him through a DNA test.

That order of events seems really fishy to me. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad they caught a rapist here. I would just love to hear more about how someone recognized this guy halfway around the world more than a decade later.

[–] ArtieShaw@kbin.social 20 points 10 months ago

There was a televised special about this guy, and it's wild from start to finish. He comes across as a weird mix of clever and dumb, charming and disgusting. Mostly the latter and the latter, but I have the benefit of knowing about him beforehand. His victims didn't.

If I remember correctly, it was his absurdist need to fake (and publicize!) his own death that led people in the US to him. He literally reached out to multiple news orgs in his home state to say that he was 100% dead, even though no one had asked. I guess the moral is that if you're going to dangle something that weird in front of reporters, expect them to follow up.

[–] Crack0n7uesday@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

He has matching tattoos, scars and birthmarks on top of the DNA evidence. He's really committed to this false identity thing. Didn't he get married under his false identity and his wife still swears it's mistaken identity, I'm sorry lady but if this evidence was a snake it would be a boa constrictor and have already eaten you.

[–] Kbobabob@lemmy.world -2 points 10 months ago

I'm glad they caught a rapist here.

Was he convicted?

[–] HonoraryMancunian@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Hahaha that accent is so fake

[–] ivanafterall@kbin.social 1 points 10 months ago

There's a documentary called Mister Organ that focuses on a similar character with similar questions about his supposed background. It was a wild ride.