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PROVO — A Utah County judge agreed Tuesday to give Nicholas Rossi, who was extradited to Utah from Scotland to face a 2008 rape charge, an additional month to gather funds to hire an attorney.
He has found an attorney, Lance Bastian, who said his potential client has not been able to receive money from banks in the United Kingdom to pay for his legal services because of communication problems with the man's wife, who is in the U.K.
Bastian referred to Rossi Tuesday as "Mr. Knight." Rossi has claimed he is an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight, but U.K. courts ruled that DNA and tattoos identified him as Rossi before he was extradited to Utah.
Rossi voiced his request for one more month through an oxygen mask while attending the hearing remotely from the Utah County Jail. His request was granted by 4th District Judge Derek Pullan, who set a hearing for April 16.
Deputy Utah County attorney Stephen Jones asked the judge not to delay the hearing and asked for a public defender to be assigned to the case so it could move forward.
"We have been waiting on this case for a number of years," he said.
Pullan said Rossi has the right to have an attorney, should have reasonable time to find an attorney, and it has only been six weeks since the initial appearance in the case.
Rossi has another hearing Friday in 3rd District Court, where he faces a separate charge of rape, a first-degree felony.
He is accused of raping a 21-year-old woman in Orem in 2008. Rossi 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.
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.
