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PROVO — Nicholas Rossi appeared in court Tuesday and asked 4th District Judge Derek Pullan for even more time to retain an attorney to represent him. The judge gave him four more weeks.
He has had an attorney appearing for him in this case, but the attorney had only officially represented him to add the name that Rossi currently uses — Arthur Knight — as an alias on the case. On Tuesday, the attorney chose not to come to the hearing since he had not been paid and had no legal obligation to show up.
Rossi was accused of faking his own death to avoid rape charges in Utah. He has also claimed he is an Irish orphan, but United Kingdom courts ruled that his case is not a case of mistaken identity and DNA and tattoos identify him as Rossi. He was extradited to Utah earlier this year from Scotland. In August, a judge in Scotland called Rossi "as dishonest and deceitful as he is evasive and manipulative."
Rossi, 36, is accused of raping a 21-year-old woman in Orem in 2008. He was identified as a suspect in 2018 after the Utah State Crime Lab identified him through a DNA rape kit, and he was charged in 2020.
Rossi said through an oxygen mask Tuesday that it was "not surprising" that the attorney, Lance Bastian, had emailed prosecutors to say he was not planning on attending Tuesday's hearing because he had not yet been paid for further representation.
"I am still working with my wife to ensure that he is paid what we agreed," he said.
Rossi had already been granted an additional month to find any attorney on March 5, despite objections from the prosecution.
Rossi said the reason he has not been able to pay is because he did not know he was going to be extradited so he was not able to make arrangements to pay the attorney earlier.
"Because I was not told of the extradition date, and I had appeals pending, I did not have the ability to know that Mr. Bastian would have to be paid in short order because one cannot be extradited from the United Kingdom until those appeals are heard and ruled on," he said.
The hearing, in which Rossi appeared virtually from jail, had additional problems as the jail's video cut off a few times. But after a break, Pullan and Rossi were able to have a conversation.
Rossi asked if he could make four verbal motions, which the judge declined to hear because of the short time the court had available. Rossi did request later in the hearing to be able to attend the next hearing from the courthouse instead of remotely from the Utah County Jail, and the judge granted that request.
His next hearing will be on May 16, and Pullan said if Rossi does not have an attorney at that point, he will consider whether he qualifies for a public defender. The judge said, in his mind, Rossi has had "ample time" to hire an attorney already.
Pullan encouraged Rossi to make "every reasonable effort" to hire an attorney within the next month.
Deputy Utah County attorney McKay Lewis objected to giving Rossi more time and asked for a public defender to be appointed immediately to move the case forward. Pullan, however, said Rossi has a right to the attorney of his choice.
Rossi has another hearing Friday in Salt Lake County's 3rd District Court, where he faces a charge of rape, a first-degree felony, in a separate criminal case. The charges in Salt Lake County were filed more recently, after Rossi's name made headlines and a woman came forward to police about an incident in 2008.
