A man accused of faking his death and fleeing the US to avoid rape charges in Utah denied at a court appearance Tuesday that he is the suspect and, in an apparent British accent, called allegations that he wasn’t giving his true name “complete hearsay.”<br /><br />Nicholas Rossi, whose legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian, is charged with the rape of a 21-year-old woman in Orem, Utah, in 2008, prosecutors said.<br /><br />He wasn’t identified as a suspect until about a decade later due to a backlog of DNA test kits at the Utah State Crime Lab.<br /><br />Rossi, 36, was extradited from Scotland earlier this month.<br /><br />He identified himself Tuesday as Arthur Knight Brown and gave a birthdate in British English — listing the day first, followed by the month and year — that is different from Rossi’s, KSTU-TV reported.<br /><br />He appeared from jail via video wearing an oxygen mask and did not enter a plea at the initial court appearance. He was difficult to understand at times and had to lift up the mask to be heard<br /><br />
