Due to his failure to register as a sex offender in California, federal prosecutors have demanded that Nicki Minaj’s husband serve 15 months in prison.
Court records show that since migrating to the Golden State with Minaj in 2019, Kenneth Petty, 44, has not registered as a sex offender.
Following the attempted rape conviction of a 16-year-old girl he attacked in 1994 New York City, the law requires him to register anytime he relocates.
Prosecutors said in a recent filing that the defendant “knowingly refused to register as a sex offender upon migrating to California” despite having previously been found guilty of attempted rape.
Given that it happened at the same time as the defendant started dating his wife, left his job, moved to Los Angeles, and started living a luxurious lifestyle, the timing of [the] defendant’s delay in registration is alarming.
Prosecutors also urged that Petty should pay a $55,000 fine during the July 6 sentencing hearing, where Petty is scheduled to appear.
Petty was unfairly convicted, according to Minaj, who also asserted that the victim, Jennifer Hough, 43, intended to submit a letter to the judge retracting her testimony.
Hough refuted the allegations and sued the couple, alleging that they had threatened her and her family when she declined their offer of $500,000 to retract her testimony from 1995.
Minaj was dismissed from the lawsuit in January. It claims Petty engaged in harassment, witness intimidation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
A request for comment from DailyMail.com was not immediately answered by Tyrone Blackburn, the attorney for Hough.
Representatives for Petty and Minaj didn’t either.
On September 16, 1994, as she was making her way to school, Petty allegedly approached the 16-year-old girl.
According to court documents acquired by The Blast, Petty allegedly approached her from behind, shoved something into her back, and urged her to “keep walking” as he brought her to his house.
When they arrived, Petty allegedly took her upstairs and started raping her while holding a knife, but she was able to flee after hitting him with a bottle, according to the records.
Jennifer went to the hospital for an evaluation after reporting the incident right away. She claimed her adoptive mother told her: “Sorry you got raped, but you should have yelled” when she arrived home.
When Petty was detained, he asserted, “I didn’t do anything,” in response to Jennifer’s accusations.
Despite her insistence that they weren’t dating, Jennifer’s mother claims that his parents informed her of their relationship.
Jennifer stated to the Daily Beast in March, “I think I kind of always just felt like people wanted me to be a lie.”
Petty was finally found guilty in 1995 on four counts: attempted first-degree rape in the first degree, assault in the second degree, second-degree unlawful confinement, and criminal possession of a firearm.
He was given a four-year prison term and told to live his entire life as a registered sex offender.
According to reports, Minaj and Petty began dating after he was released from prison, when he was 21 and she was only 16.
After admitting guilt to manslaughter in the shooting murder of Lamont Robinson, he was put back behind bars in 2006. He was given a 10-year prison term, and after serving seven of those years, he was freed in 2013.
He wed Minaj in 2019, and they later settled in California. The following year, they welcomed a child together.
Federal prosecutors claimed that ever since Petty was released from prison in 1999, he has received frequent information about the need to register as a sex offender.
Prosecutors stated in the most recent filing that the defendant has been filling out sex offender registration forms for over 20 years.
He received numerous reminders over the course of two decades that if he relocated to another state, it was his duty to abide by any local, city, state, federal, or international rules governing registration.