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PROVO — Nicholas Rossi continued to deny his identity in another court appearance on Tuesday, but he did show up to the remote hearing from jail after missing his previous two scheduled hearings, one in Salt Lake County and the other in Utah County.
Rossi, 36, was recently extradited to the United States from Scotland to face two separate cases of rape, a first-degree felony, in Salt Lake and Utah counties.
Tuesday was scheduled as his initial appearance in the Utah County case.
He 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.
He was also charged with sexual battery, a class A misdemeanor, in a separate third case, but deputy Utah County attorney Stephen Jones asked the judge to dismiss that case during Tuesday's hearing. Fourth District Judge Derek Pullan granted the request dismissing it without prejudice, meaning it could potentially be filed again.
In that case, which charging documents said happened in September 2008, Rossi was accused of pushing the roommate of someone he was dating into a bedroom, trying to kiss her and grabbing her breasts. Jones did not say why the case was dismissed.
Pullan had ordered that reasonable force could be used to get Rossi to attend Tuesday's hearing from the jail after he did not show for an initial appearance scheduled on Jan. 26.
Rossi has claimed he is an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight, but United Kingdom courts ruled DNA and tattoos identify him as Rossi before he was extradited.
The charges in Salt Lake County were filed after Rossi's name made headlines and a woman came forward to police about an incident in 2008.
Rossi's next hearing in the Salt Lake County case is a scheduling hearing on March 8, and his next hearing in Utah County is March 5.
