PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND
An spectacular begin for a younger advocate
For a time, the person born Nicholas Alahverdian glided by Nicholas Rossi, after his adoptive stepfather. After ending up in foster care, Alahverdian started working as a web page, then a legislative aide, on the Rhode Island statehouse within the 2000s.
His initiative and mind impressed lawmakers — “He would learn payments that the majority reps and senators wouldn’t learn,” one former consultant advised “Dateline” — and with their assist, he later started advocating for reforms to a foster system that he mentioned had failed to guard him from being crushed and tortured.
Alahverdian led rallies, held information conferences and filed a federal lawsuit accusing state officers of conspiracy and different allegations. The Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families denied the allegations and settled the swimsuit, court docket information present. The particulars of that settlement haven’t been disclosed.
DAYTON, OHIO
Firing again after being ordered to register as a intercourse offender
In January 2008, Alahverdian, then 21, had left Rhode Island for school and was residing in Dayton.
There, he reached out to a lady on Myspace and advised her he was new on the town and searching for buddies, the lady, Mary Grebinski, advised “Dateline.” While strolling Grebinski to class at a area people faculty, she mentioned that he cornered and sexually assaulted her — then apologized and pleaded along with her to not converse to authorities.
Alahverdian, who mentioned the encounter was consensual, was charged with public indecency and sexual imposition, a misdemeanor crime indicating sexual contact in opposition to an individual’s will, court docket information present.
After a trial, Alahverdian was fined and ordered to register as a intercourse offender. He later sued Grebinski in federal court docket for defamation and different allegations, alleging partially that she “focused” him with “prison litigation due to her untrue relationships and infidelity.”
A choose dismissed the swimsuit with prejudice, saying there was no foundation to Alahverdian’s claims.
OREM, UTAH
A rape equipment backlog and a cost a decade later
In September 2008, Alahverdian was accused of raping his 21-year-old ex-girlfriend, a possible trigger affidavit exhibits. The girl, recognized within the doc as Ok.P., advised authorities that she’d met Alahverdian through Myspace and dated him briefly, however broke it off after he turned more and more aggressive and borrowed cash with out paying her again, in keeping with the affidavit.
On Sept. 13, she went to his dwelling after he advised her he’d pay her what he owed her, the affidavit alleges, however as an alternative he raped her. Ok.P. had a sexual assault equipment accomplished the subsequent day, however a backlog in testing meant that Alahverdian was not recognized as a suspect till a decade later, authorities mentioned.
In 2020, Utah County prosecutors charged him with rape. Alahverdian pleaded not responsible.
A trial is ready for September 2025.
SOUTH SALT LAKE, UTAH
A wedding proposal, a disputed mortgage and an alleged assault
In December 2008, a lady recognized in court docket paperwork as M.S. accused Alahverdian of raping her at his dwelling after they argued about breaking apart.
They’d met on-line, dated briefly and he’d purchased wedding ceremony rings after proposing, in keeping with a possible trigger declaration. But the lady described him as manipulative and mentioned she’d loaned him cash that he refused to pay again.
At his dwelling in South Salt Lake, the declaration alleges, he refused to let her depart and threw her on the mattress and held down her wrists whereas forcing himself on her.
He was charged within the alleged assault after his identification within the earlier sexual assault case. Alahverdian pleaded not responsible and a trial is ready for April 2025.
PAWTUCKET, RHODE ISLAND
A crying child triggers an assault
In November 2010, days after Alahverdian returned to his dwelling state and received married, he was arrested after allegedly assaulting his spouse. A police report exhibits the alleged assault occurred throughout an argument over a crying child.
She accused him of knocking her to the bottom, holding her down, grabbing her neck, placing her within the face and refusing to let her depart, in keeping with the report, which famous that an officer photographed the lady’s accidents.
Alahverdian denied the assault, in keeping with the report, and when he was taken into custody officers pepper sprayed him after they say he refused to cease banging his head into the police automobile’s again window.
He pleaded no contest to misdemeanor home assault and was sentenced to probation, court docket information present. The couple later divorced.
DAYTON, OHIO
Another relationship sours and extra allegations emerge
By 2015, Alahverdian had returned to Ohio and established the Community Progress Institute, a nonprofit that aimed to revitalize downtown Dayton, in keeping with his ex-wife, Kathryn Heckendorn.
They’d met at church and married in October 2015. But in a divorce criticism filed months later, Heckendorn accused him of “excessive cruelty” and “gross neglect of responsibility,” saying he’d borrowed $52,000 and did not pay her again.
In an interview with “Dateline,” Heckendorn mentioned he as soon as locked her in a rest room for 2 days and had raped her when she refused to have intercourse with him.
In a divorce submitting, Alahverdian denied the cruelty allegation and mentioned the cash was not a mortgage — it was a present — however agreed {that a} divorce needs to be granted.
In an interview with “Dateline,” he denied sexually assaulting anybody.
MONTREAL
An expert deal goes belly-up
In February 2020, TV character Nafsika Antypas employed Alahverdian to assist market her vegan cheese firm and A&E tv present. Alahverdian recognized himself as Timothy Arthur Nicholas Knight Brown, and he described himself as an Ireland-based Ivy League graduate with a background in public relations and worldwide legislation, Antypas advised “Dateline.”
She paid him $30,000, Anytpas mentioned, however he by no means delivered.
When Antypas reduce off his entry to her web site, she mentioned, he started sending threatening messages telling her to pay him one other $40,000 or make what he described as a “cheap counteroffer.” Otherwise, she recalled him saying, he’d destroy her fame.
When Antypas advised him he was fired, she mentioned, social media posts appeared claiming her vegan cheese was pretend, as did a “fraud alert” web site that had her passport picture framed as a mug shot.
Antypas mentioned she known as the police and employed a non-public investigator to study extra concerning the man she’d employed, however the investigator discovered nothing underneath the title Alahverdian had offered, she mentioned.
It wasn’t till two years later, when Alahverdian was arrested on the rape prices from Utah, that Antypas realized his actual identification.
Alahverdian — who accomplished one extension course at Harvard — disputed Antypas’ account in an interview with “Dateline.” Antypas paid him for “work that was carried out,” he mentioned. “I didn’t rip-off her out of cash.”
PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND
Alahverdian is reported useless
On March 3, 2020, an area information station introduced Alahverdian’s loss of life, saying he’d died after an extended battle with most cancers.
On the statehouse ground, a lawmaker remembered him as a “very, very good particular person” who’d been a robust advocate for change for the state’s foster youth.
An on-line obituary mentioned Alahverdian died Feb. 29, 2020, at age 32 from non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He was cremated, the obituary said, and his ashes have been scattered at sea.
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND
A brand new identification and a brand new accent
In January 2022, authorities in Utah introduced that they have been looking for to extradite a person believed to be Alahverdian after he was arrested in Scotland underneath the title Arthur Knight.
He’d fled the United States to keep away from prosecution, the Utah Public Safety Department mentioned in a press release, and was a suspect in that state in reference to one of many 2008 rapes.
But in interviews with “Dateline” and different media retailers, Alahverdian denied sexually assaulting anybody and insisted he was not Alahverdian or Nicholas Rossi.
Speaking with a British accent and showing in a wheelchair with an oxygen tank and masks that he mentioned have been crucial after a latest bout of Covid, he claimed he was Arthur Knight, an Irish orphan who’d develop into a businessman and was married to a lady whom he’d met at a London museum in 2011.
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND
Two names, one U.S. rape suspect
In November 2022, the Scottish choose overseeing the extradition case dominated that Arthur Knight and Nicholas Alahverdian have been the identical individual — a conclusion he reached after reviewing images and fingerprints, in keeping with the choose’s order.
Yet, Alahverdian wasn’t extradited to the United States for greater than a 12 months, as his lawyer appealed and claimed partially that the case needs to be dismissed as a result of Alahverdian was wished for questioning in reference to an alleged rape in England, in keeping with the U.Ok. wire service PA Media. No prices have been ever filed within the case.
PROVO, UTAH
Facing trial
Two months in the past, on Oct. 16, 10 months after Alahverdian was extradited to Utah and booked into jail, he testified throughout a bail listening to for the Utah County case that he was, in truth, Nicholas Alahverdian. He’d moved to the U.Ok. and altered his title, he testified, partly as a result of there have been two “credible threats” in opposition to his life made by individuals in Rhode Island over his foster youth advocacy.
To defend himself, he testified, he modified his title to Arthur Knight Brown — a reputation he mentioned he’d all the time revered. Alahverdian wouldn’t establish the individuals he mentioned have been threatening him in open court docket. That, he mentioned, would “stoke the fireplace they’ve needed to proceed their actions in opposition to me.”
The choose held a closed listening to on the matter and didn’t focus on these particulars in his ruling, although he famous that when Alahverdian left the U.S. in 2017, he was being investigated for fraud and advised an FBI agent that he was shifting to a rustic with out an extradition treaty. (In an interview with “Dateline,” Alahverdian mentioned he had not defrauded anybody. The FBI’s Utah subject workplace wouldn’t remark.)
The choose dominated that Alahverdian had sturdy incentives to flee the world and denied him bail. Alahverdian pleaded not responsible and stays in custody in Utah County.
