Nicki Minaj, Kenneth Petty accused of harassing sexual assault victim
Known only as Jennifer, the woman who was sexually assaulted by Petty as a teen is accusing the couple of pressuring her to deny the crime
The victim in Nicki Minaj’s husband’s assault case is accusing the couple of harassment.
Kenneth “Zoo” Petty, Minaj’s partner, was convicted of attempted rape in the 90s when he and the victim were both 16. Now, she claims the couple harassed her to recant her statement as recently as a year ago.
The Pettys, who married in 2019 and welcomed a son last September, deny that the assault ever happened, The Daily Beast reports.
“I’m hoping for the truth to come out, and whatever comes from that truth, to let it be,” said the alleged victim, who is identified only as Jennifer in the investigative piece released on Thursday. “After everything that has happened, it’s like, these people were willing to sacrifice me so this guy could remain in the public eye,” she tells the outlet. “I feel like my family was willing to sacrifice me.”
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Jennifer, just like the couple, is from South Jamaica, Queens. She says she knew Petty from around the neighborhood but not Minaj.
In September of 1994, Petty approached her from behind on the street and directed her to his home where he started to rape her at knifepoint. She was able to get away and immediately went to the authorities.
Jennifer said her adoptive mother blamed her for the incident and said she should have screamed.
“My family allowed his mother and father to take me to go see a district attorney and pretend like [they were] my aunt and uncle,” said Jennifer. “I think I kind of always just felt like people wanted me to be a liar.”
An estranged adoptive cousin, Shiran ‘Sunday’ Grayson, who Jennifer says once lived with Minaj’s friend, TT, publicly discredited Jennifer in a YouTube video confrontation, saying “You need to cut it out,” adding, “You really need to before you get yourself hurt out here, homegirl.”
But it is documented that In 1995, Petty was convicted of “one count of attempted rape in the first degree, assault in the second degree, unlawful imprisonment in the second degree, and criminal possession of a weapon.”
Obscuring her face, Jennifer detailed the circumstances of the assault in a YouTube video posted in November 2020.
That was not Petty’s only criminal conviction. In 2006, he pled guilty to manslaughter in a 2002 shooting death and was released in 2013 after serving 7 years of a ten-year sentence.
Last March, Petty faced state charges for failing to register as a sex offender in California and according to Jennifer, that is when the harassment began.
She says she was offered from $20K in cash to a promised $500K from people she believes are connected to Minaj and Petty, though never directly from them. She alleges she was asked to recant her statement and to write a letter to the judge on more than one occasion by several different people, including various relatives of hers.
Her 22-year old daughter, Kenya, was allegedly approached at a club by an older man who asked her if she knew Petty after running down a list of her relatives including her mother, per the Daily Beast. Kenya also says she witnessed a man offer her mother $20K in cash.
Jennifer says she once received a phone call from Minaj herself.
“Listen. I just need you to know, woman to woman, this really happened,” Jennifer claims she told Minaj in the call.
The woman said the harassment caused her to move four times. Days after moving to Georgia, she said U.S. Marshals came to her home because they knew about the harassment. Frightened, she says she texted Minaj to find out what was going on.
“I didn’t know if she was trying to help me out; I didn’t know if she was trying to set me up,” said Jennifer. “I didn’t know if the people around me [were] trying to set me up.”
In an emotional video posted to YouTube in January, Jennifer publicly asked, again, that the couple leave her alone. (Warning: language)
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Despite her ordeal, she encourages victims to speak up, “For people out in the world to know that you can’t do stuff like this and get away with it. And for women who have been abused, for women who have been assaulted, for them to not live in fear of speaking their truth. No matter who the person is.”
Jennifer has since hired the law firm Kaedian LLP, per the Daily Beast, who reviewed the documents.
The state charges against Petty have been dropped but USA vs. Petty, the federal case that charges Petty with not registering as a sex offender in California is scheduled to go to trial in June.
theGrio reached out to Minaj for a comment but did not hear back before publishing.
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