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Federal prosecutors have called on Nicki Minaj‘s husband to face 15 months in jail for his failure to register as a sex offender in California.
According to court documents, Kenneth Petty, 44, has failed to register as a sex offender since moving to the Golden State with Minaj in 2019, Insider reported.
The law dictates he must register whenever he moves following an attempted rape conviction of a 16-year-old girl he attacked in 1994 New York City.
‘Having previously been convicted of attempted rape, defendant knowingly failed to register as a sex offender upon moving to California,’ prosecutors said in a recent filing.
‘The timing of [the] defendant’s lapse in registration is concerning, given that it occurred when [the] defendant began dating his wife, quit his job, moved to Los Angeles, and adopted an affluent lifestyle.’
Petty is due to appear at a sentencing hearing on July 6, where prosecutors also argued that he should pay a $55,000 fine.
Federal prosecutors are calling for Nicki Minaj’s (right) husband, Kenneth Petty (left), to serve 15 months in prison and pay a $55,000 fine for failling to register as a sex offender. The couple moved to California in 2019 and had a child the following year
Petty needed to register when moving to California in 2020 for a 1995 attempted rape conviction of then-16-year-old Jennifer Hough (pictured). The victim is suing Petty for allegedly trying to bribe and harass her to recant her testimony
Minaj has repeatedly insisted that Petty had been wrongfully convicted and claimed that the victim, Jennifer Hough, now 43, had planned to write a letter to a judge recanting her statements.
Hough denied the claims and filed a lawsuit against the couple, saying they tried to pay her $500,000 to take back her 1995 testimony and allegedly threatened her and her family when she refused.
The suit, which Minaj was dropped from in January, seeks unspecified damages, and alleges Petty carried out harassment, witness intimidation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Tyrone Blackburn, a lawyer representing Hough, did not immediately reply to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
Nor did representatives for Minaj and Petty.
Petty was arrested in March 2020 for failing to register as a sex offender in California
Like Petty and Minaj, Jennifer grew up in the South Jamaica neighborhood in Queens, where she was raised by a woman who adopted her as an infant, she told Daily Beast.
She was 16 when the alleged assault occurred after Petty approached her while she was walking to school on September 16, 1994.
Petty allegedly came up behind her, pressed an object into her back and told her to ‘keep walking’ as he led her to his home, according to court records obtained by The Blast.
Once they arrived, Petty forced her upstairs and began to rape her at knifepoint before she managed to escape after striking him with a bottle, the records state.
Jennifer immediately reported the incident and went to a hospital for examination. When she returned home she said her adoptive mother told her: ‘Sorry you got raped, but you should have screamed.’
Petty denied Jennifer’s allegations when he was arrested, telling investigators: ‘I didn’t do anything.’
His parents told Jennifer’s mother that the teens were dating, she said, even though she insists that they weren’t.
‘I think I kind of always just felt like people wanted me to be a liar,’ Jennifer told the Daily Beast in March.
Petty was ultimately convicted in 1995 on four counts: first-degree attempted rape in the first degree, second-degree assault, second-degree unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a weapon.
He was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
The victim first came forward with her alarming allegations in an interview with the Daily Beast in March, using only her first name, Jennifer
Minaj and her husband Kenneth Petty, pictured in February 2020 before his arrest in California, were accused of harassing the woman Petty attempted to rape in 1995
Minaj has repeatedly insisted that her husband was wrongfully convicted. They denied claims that they tried to bribe and threaten Hough
Minaj reportedly started dating Petty after he got out of prison, when he was 21 and she was just 16.
He landed back behind bars in 2006 after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the shooting death of Lamont Robinson. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and served seven before being released in 2013.
In 2019, he married Minaj, and the couple moved to California. They had a child together the following year.
Federal prosecutors said Petty has constantly been informed about the need to register as a sex offender ever since he was released from prison in 1999.
‘Defendant has been completing sex offender registration documents for nearly 20 years,’ prosecutors wrote in the recent filing.
‘Over the course of two decades, he was repeatedly warned that if he moved to another state, it was his responsibility to follow any local, city, state, federal, or international laws regarding registration.’
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