US rape suspect Nicholas Rossi has hired a new lawyer who is investigating his “mental health situation” as he fights extradition.
Rossi, who fled to Scotland from America to escape an array of alleged offences, maintains he is actually a man called Arthur Knight.
The 35-year-old appeared via video link at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Thursday wearing an oxygen mask.
The court was told Rossi, who is currently being held in the city’s Saughton Prison, had instructed defence agent David Kinloch to represent him.
Mr Kinloch asked for a one week continuation of the case to allow him to prepare and “look into a mental health situation”.
The lawyer didn’t reveal whether he planned to argue Rossi shouldn’t be extradited to the United States on mental health grounds.
Mr Kinloch also said he needed time to consider a potential bail application in a bid to have his client freed.
Sheriff Chris Dickson set a further hearing for next Thursday to give Mr Kinloch an opportunity for the “medical investigation”.
Rossi, who is accused of faking his own death in the US, was arrested at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital last December while receiving treatment for Covid-19.
After a lengthy discussion with his client over a private video link, Mr Kinloch told the court an application for legal aid for Rossi funding was ongoing.
Mr Kinloch said he wanted a green light from the board to hire a junior counsel to assist with the defence.
He told the hearing he needed a chance to review documentation provided by prosecutors.
Mr Kinloch, who is believed to be Rossi’s fourth different lawyer, said Rossi had given him “haphazard information” on the case and he needed to review it properly.
Rossi wanted to make a fresh bail application, he added, but he wasn’t prepared to do so immediately.
Fiscal depute Clare Kennedy didn’t oppose the motion for a further hearing next week.
Sheriff Dickson, who referred to Rossi as the “requested person” during the hearing, ordered the accused remain on remand.
Sitting in a wheelchair with his oxygen tank, Rossi attempted to raise “emergency urgent concerns” about his medical care in prison.
Mr Kinloch said he wouldn’t raise the matter at this time.
US prosecutors claim Rossi raped a 21-year-old in Utah, in 2008. He is also said to have attacked women in Rhode Island, Ohio and Massachusetts. They say he has previously used the names Nick Alan, Nicholas Brown, Arthur Brown and Arthur Knight.
Rossi reportedly told US media in December 2019 that he had late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma and had weeks to live. Several outlets reported that he had died in February 2020.
At a court hearing in June, Rossi was ordered to lodge documents proving his claimed identity of Arthur Knight was real.
It emerged during the hearing that Rossi has refused to provide DNA and fingerprints samples to the Crown.
Rossi was given one week to bring a passport, birth certificate or other documents to court.
But he was arrested before that hearing following an incident at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
Earlier this week Rossi was convicted of abusing staff at the hospital on July 5.
Rossi jumped out of bed and ran at consultant Evelyn Millar and nurse Yasmin Bagli. The pair fled in fear with Yasmin locking herself in another room.
Rossi lashed out after being told he was fit to be discharged home.
Finding him guilty, Sheriff Joseph Platt said: “The evidence that he cannot stand on his legs was not credible.”
Rossi, of Glasgow’s Woodlands area, was fined £400.
