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SALT LAKE CITY — Nicholas Rossi spoke up during a scheduling hearing in his Salt Lake County rape case on Friday to ask the judge to order the Utah County Jail, where he is being held, to refer to him as Arthur Knight.
Rossi was hard to understand as he initially spoke through an oxygen mask — and then spoke with a raspy voice and an accent after he was asked to remove the mask.
"I'm doing my best, can you hear me?" he asked, after repeating himself multiple times.
Eventually, Rossi spoke with his attorney, Samantha Dugan, over the phone and she was able to communicate his request to no longer be called Rossi to the judge.
Third District Judge Barry Lawrence said he is "not inclined" to issue an order putting a condition on the Utah County Jail, but said he would refer to the man as Mr. Knight within his courtroom, aside from using the name Rossi when his case is being called.
Rossi is charged with rape, a first-degree felony, in two separate cases in Utah County and Salt Lake County, and was extradited from Scotland to face the charges for actions that allegedly occurred in 2008. He has insisted in multiple hearings that he is Arthur Knight, an Irish orphan, and not Rossi. But courts in the United Kingdom concluded that his DNA and tattoos identify him as none other than Rossi and he was extradited to the U.S.
Prosecutors say Rossi has used at least eight different aliases over the years.
Rossi will appear virtually at another scheduling conference April 19, and Lawrence said, at that point, they will schedule a preliminary hearing, which will be the first time Rossi will appear in the courtroom in person.
In a Provo hearing earlier this week, Rossi's attorney, Lance Bastian, referred to him as Knight, but the judge and prosecutors used the Rossi name — the name he is officially charged under in both counties.
His next hearing in Utah County will be April 16.
Rossi is accused of raping a 21-year-old woman in Orem in 2008. He was identified as a suspect in 2018 when the Utah State Crime Lab verified 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 a separate incident of alleged rape.
