Nicki Minaj’s husband sentenced to probation after failing to register as sex offender
After pleading guilty to failing to register as a sex offender in the state of California in 2020, Trinidadian rapper, Nicki Minaj’s husband Kenneth Petty has been sentenced to probation.
CBS News reported that 44-year-old Petty was sentenced on Wednesday July 6, after pleading guilty to the federal charge last year.
During a hearing in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Petty was sentenced to three years probation and a year of in-home detention, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He was also ordered to pay a $55,000 fine.
In June, federal prosecutors initially wanted to sentence Petty to over a year in jail for failing to register as a sex offender, according to court documents. Along with the probation and home detention he now faces, Petty will also have to pay a $55,000 fine.
“Having previously been convicted of attempted rape, defendant knowingly failed to register as a sex offender upon moving to California,” prosecutors said.
In August, Petty’s alleged rape victim, Jennifer Hough, filed a lawsuit against him and Minaj, 39, in which she accused the pair of attempting to intimidate her into recanting her rape accusation.
The lawsuit also accused Petty and Minaj, who married in October 2019, of intentional infliction of emotional distress and alleged that the couple had offered Hough up to $500,000 to recant her claims.
The suit was then dropped by Hough in January, according to documents obtained by PEOPLE.
Petty served four years in jail in 1995 after pleading guilty to the attempted rape of Jennifer Hough, who was then 16 years old.
In a September 2021 appearance on “The Real,” Jennifer Hough who was the 16-year-old girl Petty allegedly raped, spoke out about the alleged 1994 incident.
Hough claimed Petty approached her at a bus stop, pulled a knife on her and led her to a house, where the alleged incident took place.
“I knew what he wanted,” Hough alleged. “He pushed me down on the bed, we wrestled for my clothes.”
After allegedly escaping and making her way back to school, Hough told her side of what happened to security and Petty was arrested that day.