Nicki Minaj’s husband Kenneth Petty pleads guilty for not registering as sex offender
He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison
Nicki Minaj’s husband faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for failing to register as a sex offender in the state of California.
During a virtual hearing with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Kenneth Petty, 43, plead guilty on Thursday for the sex offender registry mishap. Per PEOPLE, he faces a a maximum of 10 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release.
Last March, Petty was arrested on federal charges that he failed to register in California’s Megan’s Law database as a sex offender, theGRIO reported. The U.S. Marshals confirmed on social media that Petty turned himself in on March 4, 2020, in Los Angeles. However, he later officially took care of that matter and registered, according to TMZ.
Registering as a sex offender is required of Petty after he was convicted in New York of attempted rape in the first degree in 1995. According to Newsweek, he was convicted for attempting to rape a 16-year-old girl. Documents state that he allegedly used a ‘knife/cutting instrument’ in an attempt to coerce her into sex. Thus, Petty is classified as a Level 2 sex offender on the Department of Justice’s website.
He was charged last year for failing to register as a sex offender, and failing to make good on this particular requirement under the 2006 Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). Petty’s sentencing has been scheduled for Jan. 24, 2022, according to PEOPLE.
Over the summer, Petty sued the State of New York and its Criminal Justice Services division to have his name completely removed from the sex offender’s registry, according to TMZ.
Meanwhile, Petty’s alleged rape victim, Jennifer Hough, filed a lawsuit against him and Minaj, 38, accusing the couple of threatening and intimidating her into recanting her rape accusation. She also claims Minaj attempted to bribe her to stop her from discussing the incident.
The ordeal has been so emotionally stressful for Hough that she is taking legal action.
According to the legal docs, Hough notes that the female rapper publicly proclaimed her husband was “wrongfully accused” and offered to fly Hough to LA to change her story after Petty was arrested for failing to register as a sex offender. Hough says after she declined, she and her family “suffered an onslaught of harassing calls and unsolicited visits.”
Minaj also allegedly had her associates reach out to Hough’s brother and offer a $500K payment in exchange for his sister’s cooperation.
“If I lie now and say that I lied then, you know what that does?” Hough told The New York Times in August. “Do you know what that’s going to say to my two little girls, or even my sons?”
This story contains additional reporting from theGRIO’s Dawn Onley and Blue Telusma
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