Nicki Minaj’s husband Kenneth Petty has been sentenced after pleading guilty to failing to register as a sex offender in the state of California in 2020.
During a court hearing in LA on Wednesday, Petty was sentenced to 3 years probation and 1 year of in-home detention. He was also ordered to pay a $55,000 fine.
Petty, 44, pleaded guilty in a September hearing and at the time, faced a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release. His sentencing was postponed multiple times ahead of Wednesday’s court date.
Petty was arrested in March 2020 after being indicted for failure to register as a sex offender. At the time, Petty pleaded not guilty and posted $100,000 bail.
Petty initially faced legal trouble after being pulled over by the Beverly Hills Police Department on Nov. 15, 2019, when the department determined he was registered as a sex offender in New York, but not in California, where he now resides.
Petty is required to register as a sex offender, as he was convicted for the first-degree attempted rape of a 16-year-old girl in 1995. He was sentenced to 18 to 54 months, but spent four years in prison. Petty is a level two registered offender in New York, which means he’s considered a “moderate risk of repeat offense.”
In August, the 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.
“The case against Nicki was voluntarily dismissed. The case against Kenneth Petty is still ongoing. Stay tuned!” Hough’s lawyer, Tyrone Blackburn said.
Minaj’s lawyer, Judd Bernstein, told Hough’s lawyer he was pleased that Hough and Blackburn came to their senses.
“Your conduct in pursuing this case against Nicki represents the worst of our legal system: bottom-feeding lawyers who pursue frivolous actions against a celebrity assuming that they will be paid off if they throw up enough dirt,” he wrote.
Bernstein added, “It is just the beginning of Nicki’s and my efforts to make you pay for your disgraceful conduct with both money and, if the Court recommends it, disciplinary sanctions.”
