In Scotland, Nicholas Alahverdian has a wild week in court to fend off extradition

EDINBURGH, Scotland – Nicholas Alahverdian entered extradition court Monday with a scowl and a graying, bushy beard that made the 35-year-old accused imposter look 20 years older.

As the week of testimony progressed, his mood only darkened.

The judge who could decide Friday whether to send the former Rhode Island fugitive to Utah to face rape charges, has struggled to ignore Alahverdian’s rummaging of documents around the defense table and on a few occasions his raising his hand, once asking: “My lord, 30 seconds, please!”

To courtroom observers, the attempted interruptions present an image of a narcissist trying desperately to seize control of his own perilous fate.

Alahverdian appeared on verge of firing his legal team

Members of his public defender team have taken turns sitting beside him and fending off his constant agitated whispers directing his main defense lawyer, Mungo Bovey, on how to question witnesses, like the prison doctor who testified Wednesday she saw no medical reason why Alahverdian is using a wheelchair.

Finally on Thursday, Alahverdian regained center stage attention, testifying in his own defense.

From all appearances it was a verbal car crash.

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And as the day was winding up, it appeared Alahverdian, who faked his death in 2020 and insists the law has snared the wrong man (He is Arthur Knight, he claims, not this Alahverdian), appeared on the verge of firing his legal team.

Doctors: Alahverdian does not have a mental illness that would bar extradition

On Wednesday, a prison psychiatrist and a hospital doctor who each assessed Alahverdian (who is being held under a surname he once used, Rossi) testified that his behavior, particularly his adversarial interactions with medical and prison staff, suggested he has a personality disorder.

But, the doctors said, he did not have any diagnosed mental illness that would be a barrier to him returning to the United States.

The doctors used various adjectives to describe Alahverdian's behavior, including deceitful, obstructive, abusive, manipulative, aggressive, confrontational, evasive, disruptive, controlling and agitated.

During direct testimony on Thursday, Alahverdian rambled on about his various physical ailments — his three COVID comas, his painful back and hips — and even objected when his own lawyer, Bovey, tried to ask a more pertinent question about how he thought he would cope in a Utah prison.

But when Bovey asked if he thought he might have a personality disorder, Alahverdian appeared to almost cry — and would not give a direct answer. Instead he talked about his past diagnosis of attention deficit disorder and posttraumatic stress.

Judge Norman McFadyen broke in: “What you’re being asked about is the possibility of a personality disorder. You’re not answering the question.”

Alahverdian eventually echoed the testimony of the doctors that it would take a series of evaluations to reach such a diagnosis.

Prosecutor: 'No one can believe a word that comes out of your mouth'

Soon enough came the cross-examination from prosecutor Alan Cameron, who said bluntly that no one “can believe a word that comes out of your mouth. You have already shown you will stop at nothing” to avoid extradition.

“I respectfully disagree,” Alahverdian said, “and I will prove what I said.”

Alahverdian said he was in current conversations with his lawyer about possibly “going to the United States to prove I’m not Nicholas Rossi.” He told The Journal the same thing — a year ago.

Alahverdian is still claiming to be an orphan born in Ireland to unknown parents, who then traveled to England. (His only offered proof has been a fake driver’s license.) Fingerprints, distinctive tattoos and former police mug shots convinced McFadyen last November that Scottish authorities had the right man.

In court Thursday he said he was close now to discovering the names of the Irish couple who had adopted him; “We are in the process of collecting them from an individual.”

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“If we don’t prove it,” he said, “I’m the one who looks the fool. And I don’t propose to look ridiculous.”

Regarding faking his death, Alahverdian said, there was a fake death in this case, but he had nothing to do with it.

“We have the identification of the person who did that to Mr. Rossi,” he offered to the stone-faced prosecutor.

Doctor testifies he does not need a wheelchair

Cameron moved on. “You have lied and exaggerated your medical condition,” he said.

“Not at all,” Alahverdian said, denying the finding of a hospital doctor who testified Wednesday that she had  examined his legs. They are strong, she testified, and show no signs of weakness from his bout with COVID-19 beginning in 2021 and the many months he has been sitting. Alahverdian said the doctor’s report shows she found his leg muscles soft and tender.

Alahverdian then began a minutes-long rant.

He accused former Utah prosecutor David Leavitt, who sought his return from Scotland, of “pedophilia, murder and cannibalism,” of corruption with British authorities, of participating in a child abuse cult and “drinking deer blood rituals.” There was even a mention of Leavitt studying “mind control.”

Leavitt, who lost his reelection last year and is out of Utah politics, has bought a Scottish castle 90 miles from where Alahverdian is imprisoned, a point Alahverdian mentioned with annoyance.

For his part, prosecutor Cameron stood quietly at the rostrum, allowing the diatribe to continue until finally he exchanged glances with Judge McFadyen, and, in a soft voice, simply announced: no further questions.

Ruling will likely come Friday

McFadyen could decide Friday or take a few days before deciding whether to extradite Alahverdian to Utah, where he faces charges in two rapes and a separate sexual battery charge.

The morning hearing will surely start the way each has started every morning this week.

The court clerk calls out the case: “Extradition proceedings against Nicholas Rossi.”

The clerks looks over to the bearded defendant, arranging his stacks of law books and files for the day: “Are you Mister Rossi?”

Alahverdian doesn’t even bother looking at him now.

“No,” he says dismissively.

Contact Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Nicholas Rossi rants, rambles his way through extradition fight in Scotland