Nick Alahverdian convicted of threatening hospital staff in Scotland

For months international fugitive Nicholas Alahverdian has insisted he is wheelchair bound, but a Scottish hospital doctor and nurse testified Tuesday the convicted sex offender jumped out of bed and ran at them last month, enraged that he might be discharged.

Their testimony led a Scottish judge, Sheriff Joseph Platt, to convict Alahverdian, formerly of Rhode Island, on two charges of threatening. "The evidence that he cannot stand on his legs was not credible," Platt said.

Platt fined Alahverdian, 400 pounds, or about $483, noting that the defendant in front of him, who used the alias Arthur Knight, was a first-time offender.

The threatening conviction, however, is but the latest confrontation with the law for Alahverdian, who faked his death two years ago and is fighting extradition to Utah where he’s now charged in two 2008 rape cases.  

Fugitive Nicholas Alahverdian, wearing a three-piece suit and bow tie, leaves Edinburgh Sheriff Court with his wife, Miranda Knight Brown, after a previous extradition hearing. A Scottish judge cast doubt during a trial Tuesday on whether Alahverdian needs a wheelchair.
Fugitive Nicholas Alahverdian, wearing a three-piece suit and bow tie, leaves Edinburgh Sheriff Court with his wife, Miranda Knight Brown, after a previous extradition hearing. A Scottish judge cast doubt during a trial Tuesday on whether Alahverdian needs a wheelchair.

In Utah: Nicholas Alahverdian faces second rape charge

Scottish prosecutors contend he’s been delaying his extradition hearing by claiming he needs hospitalization because of COVID complications.

But last month when Alahverdian, 35, once again returned to Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital – postponing yet another extradition hearing -- staff there had news for him: he was fit to be discharged.

Alahverdian became incensed, testified Dr. Evelyn Millar and nurse Yasmin Bagli at Alahverdian’s trial.

First Alahverdian began shouting, repeatedly telling the doctor and nurse to shut up, said Millar, and referring to them using various obscenities.

Previously: He used the media to fake his death. Now on trial, Alahverdian wants coverage stopped

Then, Millar said, “He leapt off the bed and started coming toward us – he was inches from our faces, we were utterly terrified, we thought he was coming to harm us.”

The Glasgow Court Press Agency, which covered the trial, further quoted Millar saying the nurse told her to run “and we literally ran from the room. It was extremely frightening.”

Nurse Bagli testified she locked herself in a different room for her safety. And she and the doctor did not return to work for two days.

“I don’t think he wanted to be discharged home,” said the doctor.

Alahverdian’s defense lawyer, David Kinlock, attempted to raise the possibility that Alahverdian was having a seizure at the time.

“Is it possible the reason he had -- assuming on your evidence, he was shouting, swearing and jumping out of bed -- is that he was suffering from a seizure?”

Replied the doctor: “I’m quite confident it wasn’t a seizure.”

“Can you rule it out entirely?” the defense lawyer asked.

“Yes,” Millar said, “most doctors are trained to recognize seizures.”

The aftermath: His ruse exposed, Nick Alahverdian's victims react with joy – and lingering worry

On the witness stand, Alahverdian said he got “upset” -- explaining he didn’t like how Millar had talked to his wife, Miranda, -- but denied shouting and verbally abusing the two women.

On cross examination, a prosecutor asked Alahverdian: Why then had they run screaming out of the room?

“I’m afraid the answer to that is unknown,” said Alahverdian.

The July 5 incident has had larger implications for Alahverdian than simply two threatening charges. As part of his booking procedure, police also fingerprinted Alahverdian, which prosecutors say proved his true identity. 

Since his December arrest in the Glasgow hospital, where he was on a ventilator from COVID, Alahverdian had enjoyed the freedom of bail as he proclaimed to extradition judges and media outlets on both sides of an ocean that he was a victim of mistaken identity.

But during his arraignment on the threatening charge, a prosecutor successfully argued that based on Alahverdian’s history of deceit, he was a threat to flee. And a judge ordered him held in prison.

Previously in court: Nick Alahverdian has much to complain about from prison as extradition hearings continue

Last week a judge refused to release him again on bail until his trial Tuesday.

At the time of his arrest, Utah authorities said women in Utah, Ohio, Massachusetts and Rhode Island had accused him of various sex assaults or instances of threatening dating back to at least 2007.

The FBI was also seeking Alahverdian’s arrest for allegations he took out credit cards in his former foster father’s name and ran up $200,000 unpaid charges.

Since his story became international news, a woman in Essex, England, has also come forward and charged Alahverdian with raping her in 2017 when he made one of his first trip overseas in an effort, law enforcement officials say, to hide away.

Alahverdian is scheduled back in extradition court on Thursday.

Email Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Alahverdian convicted of threatening doctor and nurse in Scotland