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00:17it's the first day of the first rape trial of Nicholas Rossi proving a rape case is hard
00:25the defendant has entered a plea of not guilty Nicholas Rossi moved away and changed his name
00:32but Melissa never forgot what he had done in September 2008 she met Nicholas Rossi online
00:38and he made a good impression on her there's a pattern to Nicholas Rossi's behavior with women
00:44her and Mr. Rossi had broke up that's when she did disclose to us that she had been raped by
00:50him
00:51I think he's pure evil he loves to hurt women he wanted to make a report that he had been
00:57raped by
00:58his girlfriend we found he has victims strewn all over the country wherever he's gone there are
01:05victims and they're all saying the same thing he's a predator and I should have been the last one
01:12but once he realized that the law is catching up with him he fled
01:17at that point the prospect of Nicholas Rossi actually ever being caught was quite low
01:26the thing about Nick he's so smart but boy you peel back a couple layers of that onion
01:31he's the devil I was terrified let's just say at the time I didn't know there could be rape in
01:38a
01:38parent people can fool people there are monsters out there that hide it very well
01:44where are you hiding from me
01:48stop ignoring me
01:50no no
01:51no
01:52no
01:52no
01:52no
01:52no
01:53no
01:53no
02:01no
02:04no
02:05no
02:22the jury are going to wrestle with the fact that it's taken her 14 years to come forward
02:27that there's no DNA evidence that it's basically Rossi's word against her word and the fact that they
02:35they were in a relationship they were in a sexual relationship
02:38the only two people that know really if it was consensual is is Rossi who said that it was
02:45and Melissa who said that it wasn't
02:48that makes these cases really hard to prove because because jurors when they're going in they're not just wrestling
02:56with the evidence that they have heard they're wrestling with the cultural biases that they have that they didn't know
03:04they had
03:04the men right on the right now let me ask you some
03:10now let me ask you some general questions what is a rape myth
03:14so the way i would describe a rape myth is to say that it is a more or
03:21less commonly held belief that is either entirely false or largely false. One rape myth would be
03:31that most rapes are perpetrated by strangers. Why is that a myth? The best evidence that we have
03:38after interviewing thousands of survivors is that most sexual assaults are actually
03:49perpetrated by someone the victim knows. What's another myth? Another one would be that they are
03:56hurt in the process and immediately report the rape afterwards. But the reality is that the majority
04:04never report. But of those who report, there are delays as long as weeks, months, and in some cases
04:12years. Do people always all react the same way after a sexual assault? No. People respond in such a wide
04:21range of ways. Some are quite composed. Some resist. Some fight back. Some run away. That journey,
04:32how long it takes, and what it looks like for each survivor can be a very different thing.
04:42There is no doubt that Nicholas Rossi has many, many victims. There's only a few that have come
04:49forward. I think what played in the minds of the woman that didn't come forward very soon after
04:56he sexually assaulted them, was fear.
05:10I'm Catherine, and I was married to Nick back in 2015 and 2016.
05:21I grew up here in Dayton, Ohio, and my parents raised me to go to church, the Church of Jesus
05:29Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as Mormon. And they have a singles group in the area.
05:37When I first started going to the singles ward, I was quite nervous. I, you know, scanned the crowd,
05:44and there was this one young man sitting by himself, so I chose to sit near him, and we just
05:51started talking.
05:53Conversation at first was kind of awkward, as we found stuff in common to talk about, but we slowly grew
06:01to
06:02have a connection.
06:06We would hang out, go on a date, and it got to the point where I was enjoying my time
06:11with him so much
06:12that I moved in with him.
06:16It was the day after I moved in with Nick that he had suggested to get married, and he didn't
06:25propose
06:25or anything. He just said, hey, let's, let's get married. And so I agreed. I said, yes. So the next
06:34day,
06:34we, we went to the courthouse and got married. We didn't tell anybody.
06:42Woke up the next day and, you know, remembered, oh, I got married yesterday. Let's see how this goes.
06:50But it was that day that things completely changed. Nick became a completely different person.
06:58The kind demeanor and temperament that he had, it was gone. That also was the first day he put his
07:06hands on me.
07:12One time, Nick came to Rhode Island. He came in from Dayton, Ohio, and I met his new wife,
07:18Catherine, and he wanted to take myself and my wife out to dinner. We were there for about four
07:24hours. The bill had to be about $1,200. And before I can pay the bill, Nick grabbed the waitress,
07:30gave the credit card, and it gave me goosebumps. I said, wow, I've known this kid since he was 14.
07:35He's had such a troubled life in and out of group homes, foster homes. But it seemed like
07:39it made such a strong comeback. When we were parting ways with his wife, Catherine, and Nick,
07:46and, you know, I embraced them out in front of the restaurant. I said, Nick, I'm proud of you.
07:50It's great. Catherine was such a sweetheart. I got such a warm feeling for her. Even my wife said,
07:56wow, what a beautiful couple. And then, you know, a few months passed, and it was all downhill
08:01from there. I mean, like a plane that just spirals out of control that can't stop pulling up on the
08:08stick. This was going to crash and burn. It became verbally, physically, and sexually abusive.
08:19Let's just say at the time, I didn't know there could be rape in a marriage.
08:31The hitting, the punching, fighting happened almost daily.
08:39One day, it got extremely heated. I was clawing for my life against him. I had his skin under my
08:47fingernails because he was restraining me. He wouldn't let me go. And he got me cornered in
08:55the bathroom. He had my phone, and he locked me in. That was days that I was in that bathroom.
09:09I didn't have my phone to call for help. I didn't have food. I had water.
09:18When I was in the bathroom, I was thinking, this is my reality now, and it's terrifying.
09:38A couple days later,
09:45he opened the door to let me out, and I finally was able to get out the front door. And
09:50as soon
09:51as that door opened, and there were neighbors around, he just stopped and immediately drew
09:57back. And I finally was able to call the police.
10:07My name is Patrick O'Connell. I was a police officer for 30 years. I was a detective for almost
10:13two
10:13decades of that. I first came across Nicholas Rossi in November of 2015.
10:21This is where we had Road Patrol and myself that responded to the domestic violence call involving
10:27Nicholas Rossi and Catherine.
10:36Nicholas Rossi was very submissive to me. He tried to talk around and make blame. I didn't do that. I
10:43would never do that. I love her.
10:45He tried to portray himself as very highly educated and proper, but it appeared to be a front to me.
10:54Catherine described that within these walls of this house, she was physically assaulted, verbally assaulted,
11:01called names, held captive in a bathroom for a day or two at a time.
11:10I started doing a background investigation on Mr. Rossi. I learned that he had been convicted of
11:17sex crimes here in Montgomery County at a college campus. And he was a sexual offender and had to
11:23register with our office at the sheriff's office. And so I made contact with Catherine and I told her
11:32that I had learned some information. It was concerning.
11:42Detective O'Connell was the first person
11:49I had contact with who knew what I was going through.
11:58Not even my family knew at that point.
12:02You know, him coming up to the house and talking to me, you know, through a window.
12:09To say that he's afraid I'll be
12:12either chained up in the basement or dead next time. That was an eye opener.
12:26So a few more months go by and I get a call from Catherine. She goes, I just want to
12:32let you know that
12:35Nick abused me. He tied me to a bed. He locked me in a bathroom. And I just like,
12:42this is Catherine, Nick's wife. I couldn't believe this was the same kid. I said, well,
12:49be careful. She goes, I've been recording him.
12:56I needed proof and that was so hard to get because Nick would never act these ways in front of
13:03other
13:03people. So when I knew he was about to be home or he was walking in the door, I pulled
13:10my phone out
13:11and I start recording. What are you hiding from me? Give me your phone.
13:18I did something I never had done before. I said, no.
13:24Stop ignoring me!
13:27I knew if he got my phone and saw the recording, I don't want to think about what would happen.
13:37So I had to do everything in my power not to let him get my phone.
13:46I would not let it go. This was my chance to get out.
13:57And as I was running away, I sent the recording to my dad and I deleted it from my phone.
14:08It sounds like a movie. I think that guy, that guy right there is going to cause harm
14:17to somebody, specifically a woman. She must have been petrified, you know?
14:28That's, that's, I've never heard that before.
14:35Yeah, I had nothing, but I got out. I didn't go back.
14:43Domestic violence is difficult to prosecute. But I didn't stop looking into him because then we
14:49got a follow-up case on a fraud in my office. And I thought, well, if we could get him
14:54on that.
14:55So we contacted some of our co-workers that are at the FBI.
14:59And then the chase was on ever since then.
15:06Driving down Route 44 and my phone's ringing. So I pull over. I said, hello, can I help you?
15:13And he says, yes, this is special agent so-and-so with the FBI.
15:18And I said to him, I said, you're the FBI and you're calling me?
15:24I said, you can't catch him, the FBI? He says, this kid is so good. He's pinging an address
15:29in one state when he's in another state. The kind of mind may have Leonardo DiCaprio,
15:35catch me if you can, the movie. But we all root for Leonardo DiCaprio where Nick was more of a
15:40villain.
15:42The initial federal allegations against Nick involves credit card fraud.
15:48Sometimes he'd try to pay with a credit card and it wouldn't go through and he'd get aggravated and
15:52he'd be giving you different cards with different names on it. And you'd be busy and you'd be trying
15:55to tell him, listen, I'll try and help you in a minute, but just, but then he'd get really,
15:59really nasty. You know what I mean? And I just tell him, listen, shut your fucking mouth.
16:03Sorry for cursing me. That's what you just tell him. You know what I mean?
16:06He had taken money from so many people, countless people, even his foster parents.
16:13The federal authorities claimed that Nick had taken out 20 credit cards in his foster father's name to a tune
16:23of $200,000.
16:30The Nicholas Rossi case required so many people from multiple agencies to act together to make this work.
16:40The likelihood of there being such collaboration locally, not only, you know, not to mention nationally,
16:47and not to mention internationally, was quite low.
16:51All righty, state's next witness.
16:53The state would call Detective Derrick Coates to stand.
16:56All right, Detective Coates, I can stand in front of my clerk and raise the right hand so we can
17:00administer the oath.
17:02Derrick Coates is really one of the unsung heroes.
17:05There is no Nicholas Rossi case without this kind of dogged effort to investigate and follow him all over the
17:13world.
17:13Tell us a little bit about yourself.
17:15So I have been in law enforcement for a little over 30 years.
17:20And how long did you work on this case?
17:23Initially, about a year before I took it over formally and full-time.
17:31Derek Coates pieced together pieces of fabric that typically don't get pieced together.
17:37I was looking at organizations that had had contact with Mr. Rossi, gathering, compiling information that related to him.
17:45He looked at every governmental agency that investigated Nicholas Rossi.
17:50What is the general nature of these photographs?
17:52So these photographs are of the individual I know to be Nicholas Rossi.
17:57And they are progressive over the years as to what he's looked like.
18:01Do you know when that photograph was taken?
18:04In 2010.
18:06He changed his appearance a lot.
18:09And he moved from state to state to state.
18:13Once he realized that the net was closing in on him, he left.
18:18And he did that in a bid to escape justice.
18:23To connect one law enforcement agency to another takes some ability to be able to convey a larger
18:29message about why this person's a risk to other people.
18:33And Derek Coates was able to do that successfully.
18:38My understanding is the significance of these photos is that the photos not only were associated
18:43with the year, but also a location.
18:45Is that right?
18:45Yeah.
18:46And then ultimately that location search led you to?
18:51An individual by the name of Arthur Knight.
18:53Okay.
18:54And who did you believe Arthur Knight to be?
18:56I believed Arthur Knight to actually be Nicholas Rossi.
19:01The lead detective on the case had got a warrant to access Rossi's iCloud account.
19:07And as well as that, he had access to his bank accounts.
19:10And through those, it was as plain as day that Rossi was in the UK.
19:27The lead detective then started looking at getting an integral red notice put together.
19:34It was basically a global alert for the arrest of Nicholas Rossi.
19:41An American man who's wanted in the US over a rape charge has been arrested.
19:47A man arrested on a COVID ward in a Glasgow hospital accused by US authorities of being a fugitive
19:54who faked his own death to evade justice.
19:59He said he was Arthur Knight, a victim of mistaken identity, an orphan from Ireland.
20:04I got a text message on my phone.
20:08He's alive.
20:10Interpol got him.
20:12He's in Scotland.
20:13He's got COVID.
20:15He's in bad shape.
20:16He may not make it.
20:18I got an email from a reporter from Scotland
20:23who said, have you ever heard of the name Nicholas Rossi?
20:28I was just shocked.
20:30I said, well, yeah, I know there's a Nicholas Rossi who supposedly died back in 2020.
20:37Gee, maybe he didn't.
20:39This is the man the Americans want to extradite.
20:42They say he's Nicholas Rossi, born Nicholas Aliverdian.
20:46But he claimed he was really this guy, Arthur Knight.
20:50Who are you?
20:51I am Arthur Knight.
20:52An Irish orphan, this victim of misidentity.
20:57He's now on bail in Scotland following the start of extradition proceedings against him.
21:02He was on the news constantly.
21:03Are you Nicholas Rossi?
21:05No.
21:06The accent was fake.
21:07The wheelchair was fake.
21:09The mask was fake.
21:11I knew he was lying.
21:12He was trying to get off.
21:15I knew it was Nick right away.
21:17The evil eyes, the chubby fingers.
21:19I think it was very intentional.
21:22The face mask, the wheelchair.
21:25Well, that could be somebody who was trying to obscure parts of their feature
21:31from the people that knew him best.
21:33I still believed he had passed away.
21:36In all honesty, I defended him at first.
21:38I said, that can't be him.
21:39The slight resemblance, but the mannerisms and the weight kind of throw me off a little bit.
21:47There's just a lot of confusion.
21:49Like, why would he do that?
21:53And then there's Miranda.
22:04The couple say they moved to Glasgow after leaving Bristol in 2021.
22:09Miranda was with Rossi all the time.
22:15I mean, Miranda was unwavering in her support.
22:18She called him Arthur.
22:20I know my husband does not have tendencies as a rapist.
22:26Miranda, her motivation for standing by Nick, no one really knows.
22:35She was very caring to her husband.
22:38No question of that.
22:40Doing everything for him.
22:41Can I try to stand up?
22:43Yeah.
22:44Yeah.
22:44I'll be here and I can hold you.
22:49I find that very difficult.
22:51I have to hold his full weight.
22:53Right.
22:54Yeah, let's see.
22:56This is a woman who is standing by her man for whatever reason.
23:00She hasn't been charged with any crime.
23:02But of course, it's the intriguing element of why this woman seems to be
23:09supporting a guy that a lot of other women allege was not a nice guy.
23:15My theory is that Nick was able to convince her that he was being framed in the United States,
23:21that he was being set up in Utah, and maybe had convinced Miranda that that was going on,
23:29and she willingly helped him.
23:34We had a number for, you know, his wife, Miranda.
23:38I said, I'm James Matthews from Sky News.
23:40I said, we're covering your story, and we'd like to conduct an interview with you.
23:44He was up for it, and we duly made arrangements.
23:50Clearly, Nicholas Aliverdian had a past, so we interrogated that past as far as we could,
23:57and it took us to Brian Coogan.
23:59He almost adopted him at one stage.
24:01So we thought, if anybody knows Nicholas Rossi, Nicholas Aliverdian, it's Brian Coogan.
24:08All the people in Scotland were calling me, all the reporters,
24:13and Tom Mooney had called me and says,
24:15hey, would you like to come down to my office?
24:17And Sky News is interviewing Nick in his house.
24:20Would you like to confront him?
24:21I said, I would love to confront him.
24:23I would love it.
24:25We went to this flat in Glasgow.
24:30We sat down with Arthur Knight.
24:37And our producer, she raised Brian Coogan on FaceTime.
24:45Looks like he's going to shit his pants.
24:48The faces are fascinating.
24:50Is this a FaceTime call?
24:54Okay, so now?
24:55He said, is this a FaceTime call?
24:57I'm not doing this.
24:57I'm not doing this.
24:58No.
25:00That's Brian Coogan now.
25:02How you doing, Nick?
25:03I'm not doing a FaceTime call with someone.
25:07I didn't know.
25:08He's freaking out.
25:10He's calling you, Nick.
25:11This is the man who knew Nicholas Rossi for 21 years.
25:15I never met this man.
25:18You get that scar on your eye.
25:19If you haven't moved his glasses, you can see he has a little scar on the side of his eye.
25:24Do you see that, James?
25:25I didn't know this man.
25:27James, we could wrap it up right now.
25:29Nick, show him the two tattoos on your arm, each arm.
25:32I told him, show you the tattoos on your arm.
25:33He won't do it.
25:34Is he willing to show you his arms?
25:36Okay, I'm not getting into this conversation.
25:39He has a look of somebody cornered, caught.
25:44That's it.
25:45Bye, Nick.
25:47Very quickly, it became evident that this was somebody who was at it, and the compulsive
25:53nature of the story, you know, was compounded by the question, is somebody really going to
25:59believe that?
26:00Is he really going to get off?
26:01Today, the case called again at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.
26:03The court was told that Mr Rossi was judged to be a flight risk.
26:08This afternoon, police officers went to his flat in Glasgow.
26:13He was taken into custody.
26:20There was a meeting with some of the senior managers to say that there was a prisoner on
26:24the way in who had needs.
26:26He was in a wheelchair.
26:27He had to get access to oxygen.
26:29And they said, his name is Nicholas Rossi.
26:32But he doesn't use the name Nicholas Rossi.
26:34He goes by Arthur Knight.
26:37When he came in, he had this Victorian Dickensian accent.
26:42He said he was an Irish orphan, and he came from Dublin.
26:45I said, well, that's ironic.
26:47So do I.
26:48So I asked him, whereabouts in Dublin are you from?
26:50And he just came back with near the river.
26:53Which anybody who's from Dublin will know, that's not what we call the Liffey.
26:57I was quite dismissive of him at first.
27:00But as time went on, he realised how vindictive he actually is.
27:04He accused staff of sexually assaulting him, physically assaulting him.
27:08There was an incident where a member of staff was assaulted by him.
27:11And on the CCTV, you can actually see him kicking the cell door.
27:15And when he kicked the cell door, that's when it hit the officer,
27:18and the officer was injured.
27:20And the doctor had a look at the CCTV, and she goes, that's enough for me.
27:23He has power on his legs.
27:27I guess my first reaction was, yeah, we've found our bad guy.
27:32But it also is a bit of a sobering thought of, okay, how are we going to get him?
27:37Now what?
27:39David Levitt was instrumental in orchestrating the extradition.
27:44But they had to prove that he was Nicholas Rossi.
27:47So the tattoos on Nicholas Rossi's arms became one of the key factors in this case.
28:02We're going to take you back to 2008.
28:04I'd like to kind of just get to know your perspective of Nicholas Rossi as a roommate.
28:11Annoying.
28:13Very annoying.
28:14Kind of around when nobody wanted him around.
28:19And for some reason, he would like to insert in the conversations that he'd gone to Brown University,
28:25whether it was relevant to what we were talking about or not.
28:28Did conversation about Brown University ultimately lead to a conversation about tattoos at some point?
28:35So I had a couple friends over, and we were watching TV.
28:41And he just lets it out that he wants to get a tattoo.
28:45And he goes into his room, and he prints it out.
28:50And it looked like a red and white flag.
28:54And he said it was the crest for Brown University, and he wanted to get that tattooed.
28:58So yeah, we took him down to death or glory to get a tattoo of this Brown University crest that
29:05he thought was so awesome.
29:07Is that the tattoo?
29:08That is the tattoo.
29:09Also, we see a picture there of an individual.
29:12Who is that individual to you?
29:13That's Nicholas Rossi.
29:15No further questions.
29:16All right.
29:21A court is set to decide whether an American fugitive can be extradited to face rape charges in Utah.
29:28They had to go through the legal process of proving who he was and who he is and, you know,
29:33who he's not.
29:35The man calling himself Arthur Knight arrives at Edinburgh Sheriff Court this morning.
29:40It was made for TV.
29:42It was sensational to the core.
29:44Every time Nick would arrive at court in the van, there was this scrum of reporters and camera people.
29:53Today, almost a year after he was first arrested, a court began the formal process of answering the question, who
30:00is this man?
30:01I knew it was going to be a shit show.
30:03The first witness was Ruth Keating, an ICU nurse at Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
30:09But it was a compelling, a really compelling narrative.
30:13Asked if one image from the Interpol notice looked familiar, she replied that it looked like the tattoo on Arthur
30:19Knight's arm.
30:20He made up a story about they put these tattoos on him.
30:24Saying he'd woken up from a coma to find these tattoos on his upper arms.
30:29You know, something's just unbelievable.
30:31Curiouser and curiouser.
30:33I kind of did just like a 180 and started thinking, okay, you know, that's him.
30:39Your fingerprints match. How can you possibly claim not to be Nicholas Rossi?
30:43The fingerprints were actually received by David Levitt.
30:48His only rebuttal is David Levitt sent people in to tattoo me and David Levitt paid someone to alter the
30:59fingerprints.
31:00The sheriff rejected this evidence, calling it implausible and fanciful.
31:06Is the game up for you?
31:07The game has just started. The game is afoot.
31:10It captured everyone's imagination.
31:13Just absolutely fascinating.
31:15Like watching, watching a slow motion car accident right before your eyes.
31:20I mean, just bizarre.
31:22Goodbye and thank you.
31:24It was funny to watch, but like, I was, I've always been upset at how slow the wheels of justice
31:30have turned.
31:32Nick knows how to run the clock out.
31:34Nick knows stall, stall, never admit, never admit.
31:39There was delay after delay in these extradition proceedings, with Rossi sacking his lawyers many times.
31:47His plan was to delay and get under the skin of the authorities to the point where the authorities just
31:54didn't want to deal with Nicholas Rossi anymore.
31:57And my hat's off to them because it had just the opposite effect.
32:03The more ridiculous Nicholas Rossi got, the more determined the Scottish authorities got to give him his day in court,
32:11to allow him his rights,
32:13but then to tie him up in a way that gave him absolutely no basis to claim that he didn't
32:20have his rights.
32:21This morning, the sheriff ruled he can be extradited to the United States.
32:26I conclude that he is as dishonest and deceitful as he is evasive and manipulative.
32:31Those unfortunate facets of his character have undoubtedly complicated and extended what is ultimately a straightforward case.
32:40Rossi only appeared via video link at the beginning, saying he'd been physically forced to be there,
32:46before shouting that the sheriff was a disgrace to justice.
32:51He came back into the hall after being in court, and the prison kind of broke into the John Denver
32:56classic, leaving on a jet plane.
33:08I was born with the name Nicholas Alverdian in 1996. I would have that surname changed by my stepfather when
33:19I became Rossi.
33:21The amount of resources, particularly in the UK, but also here in the United States, that were spent on his
33:27lie is outrageous. Absolutely outrageous.
33:32The extradition itself was two or three years, but finally they had Nick in the US on two rape charges.
33:47Next witness for the state. Your Honor, the state rests.
33:51So the state has rested.
33:53The defendant will then put on whatever evidence they would like.
33:58All right, you ready to proceed, counsel?
34:00Yes, judge. Defense will be calling Job to the stand.
34:08Do you know Nicholas Rossi?
34:11I met Nicholas back when Melissa and him were dating.
34:16Was there anything significant about their relationship that stood out to you?
34:22Yes, it was happening way too fast.
34:25Were there any issues with the finances that Melissa had?
34:30There were.
34:31There were.
34:31What were those?
34:32Just that usually when a gentleman gives a lady a ring, he finances that ring or pays for it in
34:40cash.
34:41And it was our understanding that she had financed it, which I didn't believe was the right thing.
34:47Did Melissa ever tell you that she had been raped by Nick?
34:51No.
34:54And is that something that would stick in your mind if your daughter had told you that?
34:58I believe that would stick in anybody's mind, yes.
35:02Did you ever tell her that she deserved to be raped?
35:06No.
35:07I don't have any further questions.
35:09Okay.
35:13One day she came home and told you that they'd broken up?
35:17Yes.
35:18Okay.
35:18Was it at that time that she told you about the rings and that she had financed them?
35:23That's correct.
35:25That conversation was emotional?
35:28Sure.
35:29A little heated?
35:30Probably.
35:31Do you think it's possible that she might have told you in that conversation that she was raped and you
35:35didn't hear it?
35:38I guess that's possible.
35:40And so if you did say, right, you probably deserved it, could it have been referenced to the rings?
35:48Not to the ring.
35:53I suppose.
35:54Because you didn't hear her.
35:56I didn't.
35:57If she told me, I did not hear that.
35:59Nothing, brother.
36:04Counselor, are you going to be calling any other witnesses?
36:07No, Judge.
36:07Defense would rest.
36:08I've advised my client about his right to testify.
36:10I believe that he's going to take my advice, not testify to me.
36:12Okay, Mr. Aliberty.
36:13It sounds like your attorney has told me that you're not intending to testify.
36:17Is that correct?
36:18That's correct.
36:18Okay.
36:25It is a tricky case to prosecute.
36:26There's no DNA evidence.
36:29Her father said she didn't tell him, but the mother says she did.
36:34There is 14 years from the time that it is said to have happened to when she reported it to
36:42police.
36:43You know, the defense have a good chance of convincing the jury that there's not enough evidence to convict.
36:52So, it is time now for the state to give its closing argument, Mr. Heiner.
37:03Melissa never forgot.
37:06She told you exactly what he did.
37:12He raped her.
37:16When you're deliberating, if for whatever reason you feel compelled to question why she would misremember or flat out lie,
37:25I had an idea.
37:28Maybe they had makeup sex and 13 years later, it is now rape.
37:34Mr. Ross knew that this was our consensual. She had just broke up with him and said, we are done.
37:40She never consented. She never said, okay, this is all right.
37:44He pushed her down. He pinned her down.
37:47She thought that she was going to marry this man.
37:50And then to find out that that story that you had played forward, that's not going to happen because he
37:56actually kind of sucks.
37:58The defense would have you believe that this was a woman's score, that it was about the money.
38:05Just because somebody is bad at relationships when they're 21 years old does not mean that they're a rapist.
38:13What did Mr. Ross do?
38:17Pretended to be a man in the United Kingdom by the name of Arthur Knight and spoke with a different
38:24answer.
38:25Like, you're allowed to move.
38:27You're allowed to go somewhere else. You're allowed to have a different name.
38:30Do you think that someone who leaves the country and changes their name nine years after something that happened in
38:39your early 20s is consciousness of guilt?
38:41Like, really?
38:43Innocent people don't want to hide.
38:47Finding guilty of rape.
38:52Lastly, I want to talk to you about what Beyond a Reasonable Doubt means.
38:55You need to be saying, yes, I am firmly convinced that this went down the way that they said it
39:01did.
39:03And if you have doubts, that's all mistakes.
39:07And I'm confident that when you come back in here, you will be delivering a verdict not guilty.
39:13Thank you, Ms. Dugan.
39:14All right, this case is now submitted to the jury for their deliberation.
39:18Everybody rise.
39:28They say that a sociopath is someone who is incapable of feeling sympathy for a person in pain, even if
39:37the person has caused that pain.
39:39And they say that a psychopath, by contrast, is a person who causes pain to someone else, but really doesn't
39:47believe he did.
39:48I believe that Nicholas is a psychopath.
39:53Relentless.
39:55Deceptive.
39:56It is remarkable that he's been able to be on the run this long from such serious charges as a
40:03convicted sex offender.
40:05The thing about Nick, he's so smart.
40:08He's so bright.
40:09But boy, you peel back a couple layers of that onion, he's the devil.
40:15He's hurt a lot of people and victimized a lot of people, and he needs to be held accountable.
40:21Our church believes in justice, but just is always tempered with mercy.
40:25But one must pay their price for the harm they've done.
40:30He is a danger to society.
40:33He's a danger, especially to women.
40:36And he cannot get out.
40:55The jury are taking so long, I think, because the verdict has to be unanimous.
41:01I mean, you would think if they were all in agreement, they might come back after two or three hours.
41:06So there's no question in my mind that there is at least one person who is not with them on
41:13this.
41:14There is at least one, or maybe more than that, who thinks that there's not enough evidence to convict him
41:20of rape.
41:22I mean, God forbid he gets off, but he could.
41:40Whenever the jury's ready, let's bring him in.
41:44There will be a time, I will predict, that if there's ever a jury verdict that comes back and convicts
41:50Nicholas Rossi, you will not see the antics that you saw before.
41:55What you will see is stone cold silence, because he's got no more card to play.
42:05All rise for the jury.
42:13The four persons you have selected please stand.
42:17Have you reached a verdict in this case?
42:19Yes.
42:19Yes, we have, Your Honor.
42:32In the state of Utah versus Nicholas Edward Rossi, we, the jurors in the above case, unanimously find the defendant
42:40as follows.
42:42To count one, rape.
42:45Guilty.
42:46Nicholas Rossi, dated this 13th day of August, 2025, signed to 4%.
42:52All right, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, this trial is now finished, and thank you for your service.
42:58Our system of justice relies on your time and sound judgment, and you've been generous with both.
43:03You serve justice by your fair and impartial decision.
43:08Well, there was no motion, anything whatsoever from Nicholas Rossi, nothing.
43:16The only motion in the court was from the complainant, and she was sobbing with joy.
43:24I mean, I was behind her.
43:25Her shoulders were going up and down.
43:28When I heard the clerk say guilty, I felt relieved.
43:33I was still crying from before going in the courtroom, so then it was kind of happy tears after that.
43:41One of the best sounds I heard that whole night was them locking his handcuffs back onto him.
43:49I felt like everything was going to be okay now.
43:52Anything further?
43:54No.
43:55Have a good night, everybody. It's been a very long, long day.
43:58All rise.
44:02I had a lot of unresolved trauma from this, because I did brush it under the rug for so long.
44:07You never realize what something has really done to you until you start processing it.
44:13I was depressed all the time. I was having really bad anxiety all the time.
44:18Me and my husband almost got divorced.
44:20There was one point where I almost took my own life.
44:27Yeah, I mean, I really didn't think at one point that he was going to be sent down,
44:31but I mean, it's very, very good news. I'm really pleased because I just...
44:35He's a monster, and I mean, I'm a bit blown away by myself. I'm delighted.
44:44It's such good news.
44:54I'm safe from him right now. All his past survivors
44:58are safe from him.
45:11It just shows that it is possible to recover from trauma and to get justice.
45:17And the justice of Jesus is around him.
45:47I won't deny him.
45:47You
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