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Seven women, some from RI, may be called to testify against Nick Alahverdian in Utah. Here’s why.
Nicholas Rossi in court in person in Utah rape case
Former RI conman Nicholas Alahverdian, aka Nicholas Rossi, made his first in person appearance in a Utah court this week.
Prosecutors in Nicholas Alahverdian’s two Utah rape cases plan to call as witnesses as many as seven other women who claim the Rhode Island con man who faked his death sexually assaulted them.
Alahverdian, 37, was convicted of groping one of the perspective witnesses in Ohio in 2008 and ordered to register as a sex offender. But he was not charged in any of the other six alleged incidents which prosecutors report happened between 2007 and 2016.
His defense lawyers argue in court documents that allowing the seven women to testify, including three who say they were attacked in Rhode Island, would unfairly prejudice the juries in both cases.
“The state seeks to introduce, among other things, seemingly every ‘bad act’ Mr. Rossi is alleged to have committed in his life,” wrote his defense lawyer Samantha Dugan in the Salt Lake City case. (Alahverdian is charged under the last name of his stepfather, Rossi.)
“Admission of most of what the state seeks to introduce would violate Mr. Rossi’s right to a fair trial,” she argued, since Utah law prevents a defendant’s previous acts from being used to establish a defendant’s character.
But prosecutors in the cases argue that such evidence can be used for other purposes, including for establishing a defendant’s modus operandi and to defend against charges that the plaintiffs in the cases fabricated the rapes.
The seven perspective witnesses report meeting Alahverdian online and within short periods of time fell victim to his sexual aggression.
Prosecutors will also talk about Alahverdian faking his death
Prosecutors say they also plan to introduce the history of how Alahverdian faked his death in 2020 and for almost four years, as his discovery in Scotland and extradition case blossomed into an international media spectacle compounded by his farcical claims, Alahverdian insisted he was someone else.
That was until last October when, in a failed attempt to win bail, he confessed to the whole charade, telling a Utah judge he had fled to the United Kingdom, not to avoid any prosecutions (the FBI was also seeking him for alleged credit card fraud) but to escape death threats from unnamed Rhode Island lawmakers, angered over his lobbying efforts to improve the state’s child welfare system.
“Not only did he fake his own death and assume various aliases, but he vehemently denied that he was Nicholas Rossi during the extradition process – when he knew that he was being returned to face this first-degree felony charge of rape,” wrote Deputy Utah County Attorney McKay Lewis.
“Defendant’s extensive scheme to lie about his identity and avoid prosecution is strong evidence of his consciousness of guilt regarding the charged crime and should therefore be admitted,” said Lewis.
Authorities say Alahverdian raped a 21-year-old Orem woman in September 2008. The two met online and had been dating for a few weeks before breaking up over his growing aggressive nature, she told police.
He raped her, police say, after luring her back to his apartment with the promise he would repay her money owed her.
Two months after the alleged Orem rape, police say he raped a 26-year-old woman in Salt Lake City. Again, the couple had met online, dated briefly and even bought wedding rings.
But after a violent argument at a shopping mall – Alahverdian threatened to call the police and report that she had hit him if she didn’t let him back in her car – the two returned to his apartment where he raped her, police say.
Several witnesses are from incidents in Rhode Island
Among the seven perspective witnesses prosecutors reported planning to call is another Utah woman who claims Alahverdian forced intercourse with her in Clearfield, Utah in 2007; two woman who say they had to fight off Alahverdian’s sexual advances in his Pawtucket apartment in 2010; and a woman who lived in Warren who told police Alahverdian forced a sexual encounter upon her.
Alahverdian’s trial in the Salt Lake City case is scheduled to start in May. The Orem case is currently scheduled to go to trial in the fall.
Contact Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com
New East Bay Bike Path bridges are open and ready for bikes
What’s it like to ride over the new East Bay Bike Path bridges? We sent a reporter to try them out.
I’ve long thought bike paths are among Rhode Island’s premier attractions, up there with the beaches, the mansions and the bay.
We like to knock government, but credit where it’s due, the state has done an amazing job building out an incredible pedaling network.
It’s clearly a priority.
At least I thought it was.
But they’ve just dropped the ball on what should have been a beautiful new stretch.
The plan was to finish a mile-long connector from the East Providence end of the Henderson Bridge all the way to the East Bay Bike Path.
There was even $25 million set aside to get it done.
Except WPRI recently reported that it’s now been canceled.
The main fault lies with the Trump administration, which is no friend of bike paths, and moved to kill that $25 million.
But it gets complicated, as government funding always does.
To try to rescue that money, the state DOT reportedly worked with the administration to refunnel it into a road project. Specifically, the $25 million will now be spent helping upgrade the mile-long highway between the Henderson Bridge and North Broadway in East Providence, turning it into a more pleasant boulevard.
That totally sounds worthy.
But it’s insane to throw away the bike path plan.
Especially for a particular reason in this case.
They’d already put a ton of money into starting it.
When state planners designed the new Henderson Bridge between the East Side and East Providence, they included a bike path.
It’s a beauty – well protected from traffic by a barrier, a great asset for safely riding over the Seekonk River.
The plan was to continue it another mile or so along East Providence’s Waterfront Drive, ultimately connecting with the East Bay Bike Path, which runs all the way to Bristol. Which, by the way, is one of the nicest bike paths you’ll find anywhere.
But alas, that connector plan has been canceled.
So the expensive stretch over the Henderson Bridge to East Providence is now a bike path to nowhere. Once the bridge ends, the path on it continues a few hundred yards or so and then, just … ends.
Too bad.
We were so close.
Most of the stories on the issue have been about the complex negotiation to rescue the $25 million by rerouting it to that nearby highway-to-boulevard project. But I don’t want to get lost in the weeds of that bureaucratic process here because it loses sight of the heart of this story.
Which is that an amazing new addition to one of the nation’s best state bike path systems has just been scrapped.
You can knock the Rhode Island government for blowing a lot of things.
The PawSox.
The Washington Bridge.
But they’ve done great with bike paths.
And especially, linking many of them together.
Example: not too many years ago, Providence bikers had to risk dicey traffic on the East Side to get to the more pleasant paths in India Point Park and on the 195 bridge to the East Bay Path.
But the state fixed that by adding an amazing connector that starts behind the Salvation Army building and beautifully winds along the water of the Seekonk River for a mile or so.
That makes a huge difference – and no doubt has avoided some bike-car accidents.
We were close to a comparable stretch on the other side of the river – that’s what the $25 million would have done.
But it’s now apparently dead.
Online commenters aren’t happy about it.
On a Reddit string, “Toadscoper” accused the state of being “complicit” with the feds in rerouting the money from bikes to cars.
And there was this fascinating post from FineLobster 5322, who apparently is a disappointed planner who worked on the project: “Mind you money has already been spent on phase one so rejecting it at this point is wasting money and also against the public interest … but what do I know? I only worked on the project as an engineer … I didn’t get into this to build more highways. I do it … to give back to communities and give them more access to their environment.”
Wow. One can imagine the state planning team is devastated. That’s not a small consideration. Good people go into government to make life better in Rhode Island, and it’s a bad play to take the spirit out of the job by first assigning a great human-scale project and then, after a ton of work, trashing it.
A poster named Homosapiens simply said, “We just accept this?”
Hopefully not.
The first stretch of the path over the Henderson Bridge is done, money already sunk.
What a shame to leave that as a path to nowhere.
It doesn’t have to happen.
Between Governor McKee and our Washington delegation, there’s got to be a way to get this done.
There’s got to be.
mpatinki@providencejournal.com
WARWICK, R.I. (WPRI) — Two people are dead and another person seriously hurt after a crash involving two vehicles on the highway in Warwick Saturday.
Rhode Island State Police said the crash happened around 1:34 p.m. on the ramp from Route 113 West to I-95 South.
According to police, a Hyundai SUV that was driving in the middle lane of the highway started to drift to the right, crossed the first lane, and then crossed onto the on-ramp lane. The car struck the guardrail twice before driving through the grass median.
The Hyundai then struck the driver’s side of a Mercedes SUV that was on the ramp, causing the Mercedes to roll over and come to a rest. The impact sent the Hyundai over the guardrail and down an embankment.
The driver of the Hyundai, a 73-year-old man, and his passenger, a 69-year-old woman, were both pronounced dead at the hospital.
A woman who was in the Mercedes was rushed to Rhode Island Hospital in critical condition.
State police said all lanes of traffic were reopened by 4:30 p.m.
The investigation remains ongoing.
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A federal judge on Friday tossed the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuit aiming to force Rhode Island to hand over its voter information as part of the Trump administration’s push to acquire voter data from several states.
Rhode Island U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy wrote that federal law does not allow the DOJ “to conduct the kind of fishing expedition it seeks here,” siding with Rhode Island election officials. She added that the DOJ did not provide evidence to suggest that Rhode Island violated election law.
McElroy, a Trump appointee, wrote that she sided with the similar decision in Oregon. That decision ruled that the DOJ was not entitled to unredacted voter registration lists.
“Absent from the demand are any factual allegations suggesting that Rhode Island may be violating the list maintenance requirements,” she said in her ruling.
Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg Amore (D) praised McElroy’s decision. He said in a statement that the Trump administration “seems to have no problem taking actions that are clear Constitutional overreaches, regularly meddling in responsibilities that are the rights of the states.”
“Today’s decision affirms our position: the United States Department of Justice has no legal right to – or need for – the personally-identifiable information in our voter file,” he said. “Voter list maintenance is a responsibility entrusted to the states, and I remain confident in the steps we take here in Rhode Island to keep our list as accurate as possible.”
The Hill reached out to the DOJ for comment.
The DOJ called for the voter lists as it investigated Rhode Island’s compliance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which allowed Americans to register to vote when they apply for a driver’s license.
The DOJ sued at least 30 states, as well as Washington, D.C., in December demanding their respective voter data. This data includes birth dates, names and partial Social Security numbers.
At least 12 states have given or said they will give the DOJ their voter registration lists, according to a tracker operated by the Brennan Center for Justice.
The department stated after it lost a similar suit against Massachusetts earlier this month that it had “sweeping powers” to access the voter data and that, if states fail to comply, courts have a “limited, albeit vital, role” in directing election officers on behalf of the administration to produce the records. The DOJ cited the Civil Rights Act as being intended to unearth alleged election law violations.
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