Details of a domestic violence case against rape suspect Nicholas Rossi have been revealed for the first time after he was extradited from Scotland despite claiming for years that he is the victim of mistaken identity.
Now the fugitive Harvard drop-out may have to return to Rhode Island to face charges there.
Police documents obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com show that Rossi, 36, was arrested for allegedly assaulting his then-girlfriend at their apartment in Pawtucket in 2010.
Rossi is alleged to have faked his death and fled to the UK to evade justice from allegations of other criminal cases in Ohio, Utah, and Massachusetts.
He has insisted he is an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight, even after he was identified through DNA and distinctive tattoos when he was hospitalized in Scotland with Covid.
Police reports obtained by DailyMail.com reveal Nicholas Rossi, 36, was arrested for allegedly assaulting his then girlfriend in Pawtucket, Rhode Island in 2010. He is pictured left in his mugshot that year
Rossi was arrested and booked on domestic battery, resisting arrest, and domestic disorderly conduct during the November 12, 2010 incident
Records show that police were called by a concerned friend of his 22-year-old former girlfriend after an argument broke out.
Rhode Island police heard the couples shouting at each other, with Rossi answering the door holding his girlfriend’s child.
Officers noted that she had a ‘red mark around her left eye and minor swelling around her right eye’, as well as a red neck ‘consistent with being grabbed’.
The woman was ‘crying and extremely upset’ as Rossi told her ‘I’m sorry’ and ‘can we talk about this’, before the pair were separated by the authorities.
Police filings reveal that the couple got into an argument over their friends’ child crying, and after their friends left, he tried to ‘knock her to the ground and hold her there’.
She fled to her son’s room where Rossi ‘continued to yell and scream at her’, before grabbing both her arms and slapping her in the face. He is accused of hitting her again before pulling her to the ground by her neck.
Neighbors told cops that they heard Rossi’s girlfriend ‘screaming for help’, with Rossi denying hitting the woman, but admitted grabbing her to ‘prevent her from leaving’.
Officers arrested Rossi who shouted that he had done ‘nothing wrong’ and was ‘not going to jail’, before being ‘physically carried’ from the apartment into the cruiser.
Rossi started ‘hitting his head’ against the bars in the vehicle and was categorized as a ‘medium risk’ of suicide.
He was ordered to have no contact with his then-girlfriend and pleaded not guilty to the charges in court before admitting violating the protection order six months later.
According to a police report obtained by DailyMail.com, officers arrived at the scene and immediately noted that the victim had a ‘red mark around her left eye and minor swelling around her right eye’, as well as a red neck ‘consistent with being grabbed’
The report goes on to state that Rossi began ‘hitting his head’ against the bars in the vehicle and was categorized as a ‘medium risk’ of suicide after he was placed in the back of the police car
Police reports show that Rossi was a student at Harvard at the time of the offenses, with a warrant issued for his arrest in 2012 after he failed to attend a final court hearing.
The domestic violence allegations come after DailyMail.com detailed the litany of allegations against Rossi, including sexual assault, harassment, and possible kidnapping from 2007 to 2019.
Court filings reveal Rossi (pictured in 2008 ) has been linked to criminal cases of sexual assault, harassment, and possible kidnapping from 2007 to 2019 in Rhode Island, Ohio, Utah, and Massachusetts
Following his extradition back to the US, a warrant relating to the assault of Rossi’s former partner was issued, along with a charge of resisting arrest.
Rossi was also convicted of a DUI in Rhode Island after he crashed his black Chrysler Pacifica into another vehicle in July 2011.
He told officers that his breathalyzer was wrong, and he was not under the influence of alcohol – claiming that he only had two glasses of champagne.’
Rossi’s January 5 extradition marks a dramatic breakthrough in the years-long rape case, which had been stymied by a backlog of DNA test kits at the Utah State Crime Lab, resulting in a 13-year delay of the suspect’s arrest.
The 36-year-old, who has used at least 10 aliases in his run from the law, was booked last Friday afternoon into the Davis County Jail, which houses many federal detainees in northern Utah.
Rossi will likely be transferred to Utah County in the coming days, where he will stand trial for felony rape charges, according to the Utah County Attorney’s Office.
He faces another felony rape charge in Salt Lake County, where prosecutors say he sexually assaulted a 26-year-old former girlfriend after an argument, also in 2008.
Rossi, pictured after his extradition in Edinburgh, Scotland, in July, was finally booked into a Utah jail last week after a years-long legal battle
The 36-year-old was previously interviewed alongside his wife, Miranda Knight, whom he met in Bristol, England, after fleeing to the UK to escape allegations of sexual assault in the US
Court filings obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com confirm Rossi was wanted for one count of first-degree felony rape after allegedly ‘forcing’ himself on his 21-year-old former girlfriend and penetrating her, during an incident in Orem, Utah, in 2008
Scottish ministers signed an order in September last year giving permission for Rossi, 36, to be extradited.
Last month, appeal judges had quashed his bid to avoid extradition, paving the way for him to be removed from Scotland to face serious sex charges in the US.
A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: ‘We assisted partner agencies with the extradition of a 36-year-old man.’
The order followed a battle in Scotland’s courts in which Rossi was ruled to be wanted by authorities in Utah for the alleged rape of a woman in 2008.
Officials in the US believe he is a fugitive who faked his death and fled to the UK to evade justice.
But Rossi has repeatedly claimed he is the victim of mistaken identity and says he is an Irish orphan called Arthur Knight.
The suspect, who was born Nicholas Alahverdian before changing his surname to that of his adoptive stepfather, David Rossi – claimed he had been diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in late 2019 and told friends he was dying.
An obituary appeared online for Rossi in early 2020 saying he had died and that his ashes had been scattered at sea.
Public records online confirm Rossi was booked into Davis County jail on January 5
But the following year he was arrested in a Covid hospital ward in Scotland, where he was registered as Arthur Knight.
It was then ruled that the fugitive – who appeared throughout his court dates in a wheelchair, using an oxygen mask – is indeed Rossi after he was identified through DNA and distinctive tattoos, which were described in an Interpol alert.
Under the guise of Arthur Brown, Rossi is believed to have met his wife, Miranda Knight, in Bristol in 2019 and married her in early 2020, assuming the name Arthur Knight.
They moved to Glasgow shortly afterwards but in 2021, Rossi became so ill with Covid that he had to be hospitalized.
In July 2020, DNA allegedly linked him to a 2008 rape in Utah which is ultimately what led to his discovery in Scotland.
He was arrested on December 13, 2021 at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital by police officers who served him with an Interpol red notice.
With the assistance of medical staff at the hospital, the patient initially named as Arthur Knight was identified as Rossi, but he has continued to insist he is not the suspect.
Miranda has continued to stand by her husband’s side since he was first arrested in December 2021.
