40 Facts About Richard Rossi

Richard Rossi was born on March 2,1963 and is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, talk radio host, musician, and former evangelical minister.

In 1995 Richard Rossi went on trial for the attempted murder of his wife.

Richard Rossi recanted her original identification of Rossi as her attacker and espoused his innocence.

Richard Rossi eventually was acquitted of attempted murder but pleaded no contest to an aggravated assault though he and his wife maintained his innocence.

Richard Rossi's father was a professional jazz guitarist in West View, Pennsylvania; the son followed in his father's footsteps, playing the guitar on stage at age 7.

Richard Rossi moved to Lynchburg, Virginia at age 18 to study at Liberty University, where he earned a bachelor's and master's degree in biblical studies.

Richard Rossi rented movie theaters and showed films as an evangelistic outreach.

Richard Rossi filmed the healings and co-produced a documentary on faith healing and exorcism in 1992 entitled Quest for Truth.

In 1988, Richard Rossi tried and failed to change both the name of the Church of the Three Rivers and its affiliation.

Richard Rossi then joined the Assemblies of God the next year and led the Cranberry church, but left in 1991, saying that his ministry was too radical for the Assemblies; church officials said he left owing several thousand dollars for the church building.

In September 1991, Richard Rossi began broadcasting his nightly radio show Rich Richard Rossi Live on Pittsburgh's WPIT-FM.

Richard Rossi appeared on the Jerry Springer Show in 1994 to discuss faith healing, exorcism, and ESP.

Richard Rossi had a crushed skull and was left covered in blood; her injuries were so severe that she needed to wear a helmet.

Richard Rossi's rescuers thought she had been in a traffic accident, and called for an ambulance.

Richard Rossi was wearing only a pair of tan shorts when police interviewed him; Richard Rossi claimed that he lost his shirt running through the woods, but did not explain why he was barefoot.

Sherrie Richard Rossi testified in the trial that her attacker was a different man with brown eyes and that Richard Rossi's eyes are blue.

Richard Rossi said her earlier testimony against Rossi was coerced by police when she was still recovering and did not have a complete recollection, and that her second testimony exonerating her husband came from "flashbacks" and a "fuller complete recollection" of what occurred.

The parties argued whether the blood-soaked interior of Richard Rossi's car was consistent with Sherrie's claim.

The secretary of Richard Rossi's church testified that Richard Rossi asked him shortly after the incident to forge an alibi.

Sherrie Richard Rossi refuted this, alleging police had framed her husband.

Richard Rossi received a four-to-eight-month sentence in Butler County Jail plus four years probation and required domestic violence counseling; he served 96 days.

In 1996, Sherrie self-published Assault of Justice: The Richard Rossi Mystery, defending her husband and proclaiming his innocence, and claiming that charges were retaliation for exposing police corruption and a satanic cult on his talk radio show.

Richard Rossi said eyewitnesses confirmed her husband's innocence and that they had been receiving threats prior to the assault.

Media scrutiny revealed Richard Rossi suffered mental health, depression, and addiction issues similar to his father's.

Richard Rossi enrolled in a recovery program in jail that he continued after his release, including meetings four days a week, daily monitoring, and treatment in Atlanta.

Richard Rossi paid for buses to transport urban children out of high-crime areas to the park.

Some of his fellow inmates Richard Rossi befriended in jail attended to help serve the poor.

Richard Rossi filed for bankruptcy in 1996 as a result of his legal problems, and started over in California.

Richard Rossi returned to preaching, serving as a pastor and church consultant, and moved into acting and filmmaking to explore his interest in creative and cutting-edge expressions of ministry.

Richard Rossi started "Eternal Grace", a movement of Hollywood house churches for actors and celebrities who had difficulty attending public services due to paparazzi, and for AIDS victims and others not welcome to attend other churches.

Richard Rossi was protested by followers of Fred Phelps from Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, who decried his lenient attitude toward homosexuals.

In 2001, Richard Rossi wrote and directed Saving Sister Aimee, a short documentary film about 1920s evangelist Aimee McPherson.

Richard Rossi's telling of Clemente's story of commitment, loyalty, and devotion attempts to provide a counterpoint to today's baseball culture of players suspected of steroid abuse.

Richard Rossi says he has received support for his efforts to canonize Clemente from various people.

On November 28,2014, Richard Rossi was in the news again regarding the controversy over the shooting of Michael Brown.

Richard Rossi wrote and recorded a protest song expressing his feelings about a grand jury's decision not to charge a white police officer in the death of the unarmed black teen in Ferguson, Missouri.

In March, 2016, it was reported that Richard Rossi was in pre-production on his film Canaan Land.

On September 30,2017, CBS KCAL-TV channel 9 news reported on Richard Rossi's founding of the support group Families Fighting Fentanyl to combat the fentanyl epidemic, to help addicts, work with law enforcement to hold drug dealers accountable, and support grieving families who lost a loved one to fentanyl.

Richard Rossi discussed the 2017 death of his youngest brother due to an overdose of heroin laced with fentanyl.

The book became a family film, directed by Richard Rossi, beginning post-production in May, 2023, and finishing post-production and premiering in 2024.