Nicki Minaj and Husband Sued by Attempted Rape Victim

Nicki Minaj and her husband, Kenneth Petty, are facing a lawsuit from the woman he was convicted of trying to rape.

Jennifer Hough was the victim in Petty’s 1995 conviction for first-degree attempted rape and the reason he has to register as a sex offender. In new legal documents, obtained by TMZ, Hough claims that Nicki and Kenneth have harassed her and threatened her to not speak about the incident. As a result, she says she has suffered emotional distress.

Hough alleges that the harassment started after Petty and Minaj began dating in late 2018. Minaj defended Petty and claimed Hough had recanted her story, which she denies.

In March 2020, after Petty was arrested for failing to register as a sex offender, Hough claims Minaj tried to get her to recant her rape claims by offering to fly her and her family to L.A.

Hough rejected the offer and within days, she and her family “suffered an onslaught of harassing calls and unsolicited visits.” Soon after, Hough says Nicki’s people contacted her brother and offered $500,000 in exchange for a statement recanting her rape allegations against Petty.

Hough claims Nicki sent lawyers to her home to try to pressure her into recanting her story, which made her panic and feel unsafe. This was allegedly followed by another bribe of $20,000 and another alleged threat to her safety. Hough moved out of her house in August 2020 and says she continues to live in fear.

She is suing Nicki and Kenneth for intentional infliction of emotional distress, harassment, and witness intimidation. Additionally, she is suing Petty for sexual assault related to the 1995 conviction.

In 1994, Hough, then 16, told police that Petty, who was also 16, had raped her after leading her into a home at knife point. Petty was arrested and charged with first-degree rape, and subsequently pleaded guilty to attempted rape.

Earlier this month, he accepted a plea deal for failing to register as a sex offender in California as a result of the conviction. He served around four-and-a-half years in prison in New York state prison for the crime.